H19278 Accession Number: H19278

Description

Studio portrait of Miss Vera Deakin, now Mrs T W White (wife of Colonel the Honourable T W White MP), Honorary Secretary of the Red Cross Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau, Australian Red Cross Society, 1915-1919. Miss Deakin was a daughter of Alfred Deakin, former Prime Minister of Australia. In 1915 she sailed to Cairo with Winifred Johnson, and set up, organised and administered the Bureau. In 1916, when Australian troops were sent to the Western Front, Vera and Winifred sailed to London. With the assistance of many Australian and English women, including Lilian Whybrow (later Scantlebury), Vera transferred the Bureau from Cairo to London. Miss Deakin was awarded the OBE for her work. She worked there on a voluntary basis until 1919 when she became engaged to Captain T W White of the Australian Flying Corps (the only Australian to have escaped from a Turkish prisoner of war camp). In 1919 she returned home to Melbourne as her father was ill; he died in October 1919. Thomas White and Vera Deakin were married in March 1920. From 1929 Thomas White was a Federal member of Parliament. His wife Vera did a great deal for the constituents of his electorate (Balaclava, now Goldstein), particularly when her husband was overseas serving with the RAAF in the Second World War.

Details

Accession Number
H19278
Photographer
Unknown
Classification
Photograph
Object Type
Print
Physical Description
Colour: Black & white
Measurement
Overall: 16.7 cm x 11.9 cm
Date Made
c 1918
Whole/Part
Whole
Item Count
1
Credit Line
Presented by Miss Vera Deakin.
Copyright
Copyright expired - public domain

People

Conflicts

Accession H19278

More like this

P02119.002

Photograph P02119.002 Second World War, 1939-1945

Melbourne, Vic. 1946. Photograph of a portrait painted in oil on canvas by the artist Robert Hofmann. The portrait is of Mrs Thomas Walter White OBE (nee Vera Deakin), daughter of the former Australia

P02119.001

Photograph P02119.001 First World War, 1914-1918

London, England. 1918. Studio portrait of Vera Deakin (later White), Australian Red Cross (ARC). Deakin, daughter of the former Australian Prime Minister Alfred Deakin, established the Wounded and Mis

DUKJ4094

Photograph DUKJ4094 Korean War, 1950-1953

Original Defence Public Relations (DPR) caption: Three Australian officers with long service in the Korean war figured in a BCOF ceremony last week when Diana Winifred, daughter of Capt. and Mrs J. M.

P01797.001

Photograph P01797.001 First World War, 1914-1918

Probably Cathcart, NSW, 1914-1918. Informal portrait of husband and wife, George and Mary Griffiths. During World War I, when she was in her 80s, Mrs Griffiths made a crocheted bedspread decorated wi

MALTA0142

Photograph MALTA0142 Period 1950-1959

Sergeant Bill Roberts of 78 Fighter Wing RAAF greets his wife as she steps ashore from the ferry that brought her from the Argentina, in which she sailed from Australia. Mrs Roberts was the first RAA

See more similar items →

Record information

Last modified: 11 September 2026 - 12.19 am