Jessie Clarke
Jessie Clarke (née Brookes; (1914–2014)[1] was an Australian social worker, welfare officer, and refugee advocate.[2]
Jessie Clarke | |
|---|---|
| Born | Jessie Brookes 28 December 1914 |
| Died | 11 November 2014 |
Early life
Clarke was the daughter of Ivy and Herbert Brookes, and granddaughter of Australian Prime Minister Alfred Deakin.[2] 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.[3] 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.[1]
Career
While in New York, Clarke was offered a position as junior delegate to the League of Nations Union in Geneva.[1]
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.[2] The pageant was an initiative of the International Club of Victoria led by Clarke's mother, Ivy.[2] The celebrations featured a visit from Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester.[4] Clarke's dress was painted with scenes of Melbourne, with a cloak representing the State's irrigation scheme, and a headdress representing the Yallourn Power Station.[2] She later donated the hand-painted skirt, two hooped petticoats, and the green velvet cloak to the State Library of Victoria.[4] Unfortunately the headdress and bodice were destroyed in the Ash Wednesday fires of 1983.[4]
After serving in Switzerland she later returned to Australia before the start of the Second World War. She was a welfare officer with the Victorian International Refugee Emergency Council when Sir Frank Clarke (who would later become her father-in-law) made appalling comments about refugees when addressing the Australian Women's National League.[5] She took him to task for his remarks on "rat-faced refugees."[6] Clarke married his son, William Anthony Francis Clarke, a few days after the outbreak of World War II.[6] Clarke worked as a voluntary social worker with the Lord Mayor's Patriotic and Welfare Fund, helping with the issues of army wives and relatives in Sydney, and later in Melbourne where her husband was stationed.[6]
Nappie Wash
Jessie and William Clarke, along with Mary Adam and Harold Moran, started a napkin wash service in 1946 in response to the post war baby boom.[7] The company's goal was to help overburdened mothers in washing the nappies of their babies.[8] The company went on to become the first successful nappy wash service in Australia,[8] and the second largest such service in the world.[1]
Further reading
Jessie Clarke's 1934 Pageant of Nation Costume by Annette Soumilas, La Trobe Journal
Papers of Jessie Clarke [ca. 1900-1990] [manuscript], State Library Victoria
References
- Melbourne, National Foundation for Australian Women and The University of. "Clarke, Jessie Deakin - Woman - The Australian Women's Register". www.womenaustralia.info. Retrieved 2020-06-04.
- McConville, Andrew. "Research Guides: Velvet, Iron, Ashes: Jessie Clarke & the Pageant of Nations". guides.slv.vic.gov.au. Retrieved 2020-06-04.
- Soumilas, Annette (2018). "'I was the State of Victoria': Jessie Clarke's 1934 Pageant of Nations costume" (PDF). La Trobe Journal. 102: 72–87 – via State Library Victoria.
- "The La Trobe Journal No 102 September 2018". State Library Victoria. Retrieved 2020-06-04.
- "MENACE OF THE REFUGEE". Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 - 1954). 1939-05-09. p. 11. Retrieved 2020-06-05.
- Melbourne, National Foundation for Australian Women and The University of. "Clarke, Jessie Deakin - Woman - The Australian Women's Register". www.womenaustralia.info. Retrieved 2020-06-05.
- "Advertising". Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 - 1954). 1946-04-17. p. 6. Retrieved 2020-06-05.
- "Jessie, a true force of nature". www.heraldsun.com.au. 2014-12-28. Retrieved 2020-06-05.