Editing Alfred Deakin (section)

==Final years==
[[File:Alfred Deakin, 1914 (Frederick McCubbin).png|thumb|upright|[[Parliament House, Canberra|Parliament House]] portrait of Deakin by [[Frederick McCubbin]], 1914]]
After the 1913 election, Cook offered Deakin the position of chairman of the Interstate Commission, but he declined.{{sfn|Brett|2017|p=416}} In 1914, following the outbreak of World War I, he did accept a request to chair a [[royal commission]] into food supply during the war.{{sfn|Brett|2017|p=417}} Deakin's final public engagement was as leader of the Australian delegation to the 1915 [[Panama–Pacific International Exposition]] in San Francisco. He was offered the role initially by Cook and then by Andrew Fisher, who returned as prime minister in September 1914. The appointment was entirely ceremonial and had the support of both Fisher and his deputy [[Billy Hughes]]. However, Deakin's involvement was subject to political interference from external affairs minister [[Hugh Mahon]], and he decided on an early return to Australia.{{sfn|Brett|2017|pp=416–419}}

===Illness and death===
The final years of Deakin's political career coincided with the early stages of a degenerative neurological condition, with memory loss as the primary feature. In his personal diaries, he meticulously documented his loss of function and increasing anguish at his decline.{{sfn|Brett|2017|pp=402–404}} Other health records suggest he also suffered from chronic [[hypertension]].{{sfn|Brett|2017|p=413}} He had hoped that his symptoms were due to stress and leaving politics would aid his recovery, but instead found that "when I stepped out of Parliament in some mysterious fashion all my memories commenced to die or disappear".{{sfn|Brett|2017|p=416}} Contemporary doctors were unable to give him a clear diagnosis, other than a 1913 opinion of "[[neurasthenia|hyperneurasthenia]]".{{sfn|Brett|2017|p=413}} Later writers have suggested [[vascular dementia]], [[early-onset Alzheimer's disease]], [[neurosyphilis]], and [[Vitamin B12 deficiency|Vitamin B<sub>12</sub> deficiency]] from vegetarianism as possible causes of his illness.<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://press-files.anu.edu.au/downloads/press/n4280/pdf/05_coleman.pdf|title=Six Problems in the Biography of Alfred Deakin|first=William|last=Coleman|publisher=Australian National University|journal=Agenda: A Journal of Policy Analysis and Reform|year=2018|volume=24|issue=1|pages=85–87}}</ref>
[[File:Alfred Deakin's Gravesite.jpg|thumb|233x233px|Graves of Alfred and Pattie Deakin at St Kilda Cemetery]]
In October 1914, Deakin wrote that he had "no continuity of memory or argument" and relied upon "impressions that fade or are forgotten in a few minutes and often in a few seconds".{{sfn|Brett|2017|p=417}} In November 1915, he wrote that he could remember what he had read for only a few hours and that "no collapse could be ghastlier". The following month, he wrote that "I have now become a mere juggler with myself [...] my helpless attempts to read the riddle of my mind and thought must be frankly abandoned".{{sfn|Brett|2017|p=421}} At her urging, Deakin and his wife left Australia in September 1916 to seek advice from specialists in England and the United States, and also to visit their daughter [[Vera Deakin|Vera]] in London.{{sfn|Brett|2017|p=422}} They returned to Australia in early 1917, after which he was generally confined to his home in South Yarra and only saw family members.{{sfn|Brett|2017|pp=423–424}}

[[File:Alfred Deakin funeral procession 01 (cropped).jpg|thumb|left|Deakin's funeral procession leaving Parliament House, Melbourne]]
Deakin died at his home on 7 October 1919, aged 63. His official cause of death was given as [[meningoencephalitis]].<ref name=adb/> He was granted a [[state funeral]] at Queen's Hall in Parliament House, Melbourne, after a period [[lying in state]].{{sfn|Brett|2017|pp=424–425}} He was interred next to his parents in the non-denominational section of [[St Kilda Cemetery]], joined by his widow Pattie following her death in 1934.<ref name=foskcdeakin>{{Cite web |title= The Visionary: Alfred Deakin (1856–1919) |publisher   = [[Friends of St Kilda Cemetery]] |work        = St Kilda Biographies |url         = http://www.foskc.org/deakin.htm |access-date  = 2 January 2014 |url-status     = dead |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20120321091232/http://www.foskc.org/deakin.htm |archive-date = 21 March 2012 |df          = dmy-all}}</ref>