Ivy Brookes

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 Victoria. She was president of the National Council of Women of Australia from 1948 to 1953.

Early life Deakin was born on 14 July 1883 in South Yarra, Victoria, the eldest of three daughters born to Pattie (Browne) and Alfred Deakin. Her father became the second prime minister of Australia, serving three terms between 1903 and 1910. Based on the frequency of her appearances in his diary, Alfred Deakin's biographer Judith Brett has speculated that Ivy was his favourite child. The Deakin sisters were initially tutored by their aunt Catherine Deakin, before going on to attend Melbourne Girls Grammar. She was also a foundation vice-president of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra's ladies' committee. She lived in Washington, D.C., from 1929 to 1931, during her husband's service as Commissioner-General to the United States. Brookes was elected as a justice of the peace in 1934. She was the inaugural vice-president of the Anti-Cancer Council of Victoria, from 1936 to 1966, and was a foundation member of the University of Melbourne's boards of physical education (1938–1970) and social studies (1941–1967).

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". In 1909, she became the honorary secretary of the Commonwealth Liberal Party (CLP), an organisation which Deakin had founded to support the "Fusion" Liberal Party he created in federal parliament. The CLP was later absorbed into the People's Liberal Party, where she held a similar position. 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.