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. 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. 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 was a welfare officer with the Victorian International Refugee Emergency Council when Sir Frank Clarke made negative comments about Jewish "rat-faced refugees" when addressing the Australian Women's National League, and she took him to task for his remarks. A few months later she married his son, William Anthony Francis Clarke, just after the outbreak of the Second World War. The company's goal was to help overburdened mothers in washing the nappies of their babies. The company went on to become the first successful nappy wash service in Australia,