Vera Deakin’s Participation in the First World War

The following sample essay on Vera Deakin’s Participation in the First World War tells the story of Vera Deakin’s historical contribution to the First World War.

Vera Deakin had a massive part in World War 1 as she was the driving force of the wounded and missing Inquiry Bureau. The aim of the bureau was to provide information to the families of Australian soldier’s, to notify them if their sons were missing, wounded or dead. This bureau was SO important as it was the official link between the soldiers and their families.

Vera, was the youngest daughter of former Australian Prime Minister Alfred Deakin, she was originally supposed to go into nursing, but, went against her father’s wishes to go to Port Said located in Egypt, so she could open this significant bureau. Unfortunately, it was forced to move its operations to London as the army didn’t view Deakin’s work in the bureau as favorable to its reputation.

As months went to the bureau grew in size and volunteers.

Requests for soldier’s information raised to 25,000 a year. For Vera’s efforts in the bureau, she was awarded an OBE, which is An Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. Vera’s significance of Australia’s war was mostly back in Australia. With this bureau ANZAC families were notified if their sons had met any harm on the battlefield. This bureau also brought closure to soldier’s families informing them of how the son, husband, or father died heroically on the battlefield to protect the lives of the Australian people.

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This bureau revealed that Australia wasn’t successful in their battles, especially at Gallipoli and it exposed to the Australian public the true consequences that war has.According to the Australian War Memorial archives Vera said “What we tried to accomplish as a bureau was to relieve as quickly as possible the anxiety of the relatives in Australia, to make the men realize that we were there to help and assist them in every way in our power, and to shield the authorities from unnecessary and duplicated inquiries. ”

This quote shows and reflects the hardworking nature of Vera and the significance she played to relieve the anxiety and stress soldier’s families.Vera also received a thankyou from Gunner Arthur Marginson expressing his appreciation on her efforts, he wrote Dear miss Deakin “I have to thank you for the kind and sympathetic letter I have received notifying me of the manner and details of the way in which my dear Brother met his death in action and the system by which you gain your information reflects great credit on your society which is doing so much now to alleviate the suffering of relations of the men who go out The greatest blow is over now” this is just another example that’s hows the significance of Vera Deakin in her effort caring for Anzac families. In conclusion, I believe that Vera Deakin had an immensely important part in the 1st world war, through her missing and enquiry bureau, which we can see had a great effect through Vera’s awards and appreciation from the Australian people.