Ivy Brookes
Ivy Brookes | |
---|---|
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia | |
Education | Melbourne Girls Grammar |
Spouse | |
Children | Wilfred, Jessie, Alfred |
Parent(s) | Alfred Deakin Pattie Browne |
Relatives | Vera Deakin White (sister) |
Ivy Deakin Brookes (14 July 1883 – 27 December 1970) was an Australian community worker and activist. She held leadership positions across a wide range of organisations in
Early life
Deakin was born on 14 July 1883 in
Music
In 1901, Deakin began studying singing and violin at
Community work
Brookes was involved with a wide range of organisations, and according to
After all her children reached school age, Brookes was able to increased her public activity. She was the founder of the International Club of Victoria (1933–1958), and also held executive office in the Victorian branches of the Bureau of Social and International Affairs, the League of Nations Union, and United Nations Association.[5] In 1937, she represented Australia at the League of Nations Assembly in Geneva, as the only woman in the Australian delegation.[6] Brookes was elected as a justice of the peace in 1934.[7] She was the inaugural vice-president of the Anti-Cancer Council of Victoria, from 1936 to 1966,[8] and was a foundation member of the University of Melbourne's boards of physical education (1938–1970) and social studies (1941–1967).[1]
Political involvement
Brookes shared many of her father's political beliefs, as did her husband. As an able public speaker and political organiser, she became "her father's most valuable lieutenant in organising women for the liberal cause".
Brookes campaigned for the "Yes" vote during the 1916 and 1917 referendums on conscription, embarking on "an ambitious public speaking trail" in country Victoria. After the creation of the Nationalist Party in 1917, she also held leadership roles in the National Union and National Federation. However, she suspended her active involvement in politics after her father's death in 1919.[12] In 1925, Brookes returned to politics as a substitute for her ill husband, organising finances and election material at the 1925 federal election.[13] Her liberal views had previously brought her into conflict with the more conservative Australian Women's National League (AWNL), but she eventually joined the league and became a vice-president. She assisted Elizabeth Couchman in bringing the AWNL into the new Liberal Party of Australia in 1944, and became one of its founding members and "a matriarch of the party that she and Herbert regarded as the philosophical heir of her father's".[14]
National Council of Women
Brookes was first elected to the executive of the National Council of Women of Victoria in 1912. She was re-elected to the executive in 1934, then elected vice-president in 1936 and president in 1938. She was one of the Australian delegates at the International Council of Women's 50th anniversary conference, held in Scotland in 1938. As a delegate to the National Council of Women of Australia (NCWA), Brookes chaired its press, arts and letters and peace and international relations committees for a number of years. She was elected national president in 1948, serving until 1953. During her term as president, the organisation lobbied for equal pay and abolition of the marriage bar, and advocated for the interests of migrants and indigenous people. Brookes represented the organisation at the 1951 national inflation conference and as a member of the Advisory Committee on Import Licensing Control. She was appointed a life vice-president of the NCWA at the end of her term as president.[5]
Personal life
The Deakin family attended the
- Sir Wilfred Deakin Brookes (1906–1997), RAAF officer and businessman.
- Sir Frank Clarke.[15]
- Alfred Deakin Brookes (1920–2005), intelligence officer, first head of the Australian Secret Intelligence Service
She was widowed in 1963 and died in Melbourne on 27 December 1970, aged 87. She was interred at St Kilda Cemetery alongside her husband.[1]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Patrick, Alison (1979). "Brookes, Ivy (1883–1970)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Vol. 7.
- ISBN 9781925498660.
Ivy was Deakin's favourite. Except when ill, neither Stella nor Vera appear in his diary. Ivy is there often [...] he taught her to shoot, recording her first rabbit with a father's pride, as well as her first musical evening and her first party."
- ^ Brett 2017, p. 308.
- The Australasian. 12 May 1928.
- ^ a b c d e f "Ivy Brookes". National Council of Women of Australia. Retrieved 11 April 2019.
- The Melbourne Herald. 22 April 1937.
- The Melbourne Argus. 24 July 1934.
- ^ "Remembering Ivy Brookes on International Women's Day". Cancer Council Victoria. 8 March 2018. Retrieved 11 April 2019.
- ISBN 9781862874602.
- ^ Fitzherbert 2004, pp. 130–131.
- ^ Fitzherbert 2004, p. 130.
- ^ Fitzherbert 2004, p. 132.
- ^ Fitzherbert 2004, pp. 132–133.
- ^ Fitzherbert 2004, p. 133.
- ^ Clarke, Alice (28 December 2014). "Jessie, a force of nature from a simpler time". Herald Sun. Retrieved 11 April 2019.