Crompton was born in West Tanfield, Yorkshire and educated in London, studying art at the Westminster School of Art (under William Mouat Loudan) and then in Paris. Among her works were watercolours which included harbour and coastal scenes and still lifes.

From 1897 to 1901 she was exhibiting with SWA, and gave her residence as Kensington Court. In 1902, on a sketching trip to Dinan in France, organised by the Newlyn artist Norman Garstin, she met the New Zealander Frances HODGKINS. The two women became great friends over the next twenty years. In 1922, while Gertrude was based in Clevedon, Somerset, she married W Robert Hall. By 1927 the couple had moved to Polruan, near Fowey. In 1934 she participated in a local exhibition, which included several of her paintings of Polperro.

She was a member of STISA from 1946 through 1952, when she and her husband moved to Nailsworth in Gloucestershire.