People Australia

Susan Adelaide Casson, née Holmes (1871-1952) trade union leader, community activist 

Birth: 28 December 1871, Kings Ballycollin, Geashill, Ireland, daughter of William Nassau Holmes (1838-1919), businessman, formerly quartermaster in the British Army who served in Afghanistan in 1878-1880, and Maria Susan, née Geashill [or Ardagh] (1839-1913). Marriage: 14 January 1897 at Perth, Western Australia, to Edgar Harold Jefferies Casson, railway unionist. They had one daughter and five sons, two of whom died in infancy. Death: 23 April 1952 at Applecross, Perth, WA. Religion: Anglican. 

• Migrated from Ireland as young girl, placed into orphanage. Educated at Brighton, Victoria.
• In 1917 first female organiser for the Australian Labor Party in Perth, WA, after appointment as Labor Queen, Perth, in 1916.
• Active in recruiting for whiteworkers, furniture workers, photographic and laundry workers' unions. 1918-1920 secretary of Female Printing Workers' Union.
• Appointed justice of the peace for the Perth magisterial district in June 1920.
• Retained membership of ALP but after 1920 was active in Mental Hospital Aftercare and Comfort Fund Association, the first of its kind in WA, as well as the Ugly Men's Voluntary Workers' Association of WA.
• Appointed MBE in January 1948.

Sources
Lenore Layman and Julian Goddard, Organise: a visual record of the labour movement in Western Australia (Perth, 1988); Battye Library, ALP records, ACC 1101 file 17/1919.