Vera Deakin White

Vera Deakin White (25 December 1891 – 9 August 1978), also known as Lady White, was an Australian humanitarian known for her long involvement with the Australian Red Cross. In 1915, aged 23, she established the Australian Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau to assist the families of soldiers. The bureau, initially based in Cairo and later in London, responded to thousands of requests for information during the First World War.

Early life Vera Deakin was born on 25 December 1891 at Llanarth, her parents' home in South Yarra, Melbourne. She was the youngest of three daughters born to Pattie (née Browne) and Alfred Deakin. Her father was the second Prime Minister of Australia, serving three non-consecutive terms between 1903 and 1910.

The Deakin sisters were initially tutored by their aunt Catherine Deakin, before going on to Melbourne Girls Grammar. Vera attended lectures in English literature at the University of Melbourne, but was primarily interested in music. She took cello and vocal lessons, performing publicly for the first time at the Australian Exhibition of Women's Work in 1907. She went to Europe in 1913 to study music in Berlin and Budapest, chaperoned by her aunt Catherine.

On 21 October 1915, aged 23, Deakin opened the Australian Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau in Cairo, with herself as secretary and Johnson as assistant secretary. In May 1916, the bureau moved its headquarters to Victoria Street, London, after the AIF was transferred to the Western Front. By late 1917, Deakin was managing 60 staff – including agents in Britain, France, and Belgium – and the bureau had to relocate to a larger building in Grosvenor Place. Deakin later recalled "we were often met with suspicion and eventually jealousy, as we had made ourselves felt as a court of appeal for relatives who were unsuccessful in obtaining satisfaction from the military authorities".

She was succeeded as head of the bureau by Lilian Avis Scantlebury in 1919. Scantlebury had been with the bureau since 1916 and had led the letter section.

Marriage and children In December 1918, Deakin met Thomas White, a former prisoner of war who had managed to escape from the Ottoman Empire several months earlier. They became engaged a few weeks after their first meeting, despite opposition from some of her family, and married in Melbourne in March 1920.