Jessie Clarke

Jessie Deakin Clarke, (née Brookes; 28 December 1914 – 11 November 2014) was an Australian social worker, welfare officer, and refugee advocate. Early life Clarke was the daughter of Ivy and Herbert Brookes, and granddaughter of Australian prime minister Alfred Deakin. Her father was a businessman, philanthropist, and activist who served as president of the Victorian Chamber of Manufactures. Her mother Ivy was a gifted musician, active with national and international councils of women and Melbourne Women's Hospital. Clarke completed an Arts/Social Work degree at the University of Melbourne, where her mother served on several faculty boards, before doing further studies in New York. Career While in New York, Clarke was offered a position as junior delegate to the League of Nations Union in Geneva. In 1934, at just twenty years old, Clarke wore a spectacular costume representing the State of Victoria in The Pageant of Nations, a centenary celebration of European arrival in Victoria. The pageant was an initiative of the International Club of Victoria led by Clarke's mother, Ivy. The celebrations featured a visit from Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester. Clarke's dress was designed by Thelma Thomas, painted with scenes of Melbourne, with a cloak representing the State's irrigation scheme, and a headdress representing the Yallourn Power Station. She later donated the hand-painted skirt, two hooped petticoats, and the green velvet cloak to the State Library Victoria in 1998. The headdress and bodice were destroyed in the Ash Wednesday fires of 1983.