Edward Alfred Frederick Compton was the son of George Spencer Compton and Elizabeth Ley. He was born in St Kilda, Victoria, on 19 November, 1867. The family moved to Western Australia in about 1870, where George was employed as a Clerk of Courts in Fremantle. Fred Compton attended Hale School, where it is said that he won a prize for cartography.

Fred Compton then worked as a surveyor, and married Agnes Maria Mitchell in Bridgetown, Western Australia on 23 April, 1890. They moved to Southern Cross, where Fred Compton was then Mining Registrar. They had six children, and a seventh who died a few weeks after birth. The children were:

George Spencer Compton born 6 May, 1891
Agnes Isa Compton 6 June, 1892
Winnifred Mitchell Compton 28 June, 1893
Annie Bickley Compton 26 January, 1896
Jessica Fredericka Compton 25 November, 1897
Alfred Alwyn Ormuz Compton 14 August, 1900

Also born, on August 10th, 1894 at Southern Cross, was Frederick Charles Henry Compton. However, the child died a few weeks later. Agnes, as Acting Registrar (presumably her husband was away in the bush) signed the death certificate of her own child in that capacity.

Fred resigned from the Mines Department in 1910, after a 22-year career in the goldfields of Western Australia, in which he served as Mining Registrar, Warden and Magistrate in several towns. He then became a real estate agent in Perth, based in West Leederville.

As a Captain in the Army reserve, Fred joined up for active service early in the Great War. War diaries written by his son, G.Spencer Compton, tell of meeting his father both in Egypt and in England during that war.

E.A.F.Compton is said to have died in May, 1930, as a consequence of a bout of pneumonia.

Go back to G.Spencer Compton.

Exit from the homepage altogether.