Vera DeakinPrint Page

The tree commemorates Vera Deakin, Lady White (1871-1978).

Vera Deakin was the founder of the Australian Wounded and Missing Inquiry Bureau in World War One, at South Yarra, Melbourne. Her father, Alfred, later became Prime Minister.

She was in London when World War One began and quickly turned her energies to war work. Returning to Australia, she joined the local branch of the British Red Cross Society and studied nursing. Against the wishes of her parents, Deakin sought a role for herself in war work overseas and was encouraged by the Red Cross in Cairo to travel to Egypt as soon as possible.

She arrived in Port Said on 20 October 1915 and, the following day, opened the Wounded and Missing Inquiry Bureau - an organisation devoted to finding information on behalf of the relatives of Australian soldiers then fighting at Gallipoli. Peopled mainly by volunteers, the Bureau grew in size until it was dealing with up to 25,000 requests for information a year. Deakin was awarded the OBE in 1918.

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