Summary heading

Career within Commonwealth

Elizabeth Martha Anne (Pattie) Deakin (nee Browne) was born on 1 January 1863 at Camp Hill, Tullamarine in Victoria.  She was the fifth of eleven children (and the eldest daughter) of Hugh Junor and Elizabeth (Turner) Browne.  Educated by governesses until she was twelve, Pattie Deakin was then transferred to Mrs Phillippa Jones’ Grantown House.  There she studied to matriculation, but did not sit the exam.

In 1877 at the Spiritualist Sunday school known as the Progressive Lyceum Pattie Deakin met her future husband, Alfred Deakin who served three terms as Prime Minister (24 September 1903 – 27 April 1904, 5 July 1905 – 13 November 1908, 2 June 1909 – 29 April 1910).  They married on 3 April 1882 and had three children, Ivy (14 July 1883), Stella (3 June 1886), and Vera (15 December 1891).

Pattie Deakin travelled widely with her husband and family.  Near the end of 1884 she and Ivy accompanied Alfred Deakin to California where he was to study irrigation and water conservation techniques.  They returned to California in 1915 to attend the Panama-Pacific exposition, this time with Vera.  The family also joined Alfred Deakin in London in 1900 to see the passing of the Constitution Bill through the House of Commons.  Pattie Deakin was well-received in London at the Imperial Conference in January 1907 where she gave her first public speech to the Primrose League. 

On her return to Australia she became committee chairwoman of the very successful Australian Exhibition of Women’s Work.  Over the ensuing years Pattie Deakin became increasingly involved in charitable organisations, particularly those concerned with the welfare of women, children and the families of returned soldiers.  She was president of the Kindergarten Union and heavily involved in the Association of Creches and the Bush Nursing Association.  She was invited to become the first president of the Lyceum Club for high achieving women and, with Ivy, was co-founder of the women’s committee of the Commonwealth Liberal Party.

Despite years of ill health and her husband’s retirement from politics, Pattie Deakin remained active in public life.  As a member of the National Council of Women, she lobbied for better conditions for children in the care of the state.  In honour of her years of tireless service Pattie Deakin was made a life vice-president of the Melbourne District Nursing Society and the Victorian Playground Association, of which she had been a founding member.

During the war years Pattie Deakin became organiser of the Anzac Buffet, which provided refreshments, clothing and care for returned soldiers and their families.  She was the only female member of the AIF Canteens Fund Trust and was granted the Award of Merit by both the Federal and State members of the returned soldiers’ organisations.

At the age of 70, Pattie Deakin died on 30 December 1934 at Ballara, the family home at Point Lonsdale.  Just before her death she accepted a CBE, which she had previously refused immediately following the war.

Links to other Commonwealth Persons

3 April 1882 – 7 October 1919:  CP 9, The Hon Alfred DEAKIN

Publications

End notes

Sources

‘Death of Mrs. Alfred Deakin’, The Age, 31 December 1934, p 8 

Langmore, Diane, Prime Minister’s Wives, McPhee Gribble, 1992, pp 5-42