The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (2536) Private Thomas Sefton Creswick, 37th Battalion, AIF, First World War.

The Last Post Ceremony is presented in the Commemorative area of the Australian War Memorial each day. The ceremony commemorates more than 102,000 Australians who have given their lives in war and other operations and whose names are recorded on the Roll of Honour. At each ceremony the story behind one of the names on the Roll of Honour is told. Hosted by Joanne Smedley, the story for this day was on (2536) Private Thomas Sefton Creswick, 37th Battalion, AIF, First World War.

2536 Private Thomas Sefton Creswick, 37th Battalion, AIF
KIA 7 June 1917
Story delivered 10 June 2018

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private Thomas Creswick.

Thomas Sefton Creswick was born in 1898, one of 12 children of Richard and Amelia Creswick of Lake Cargelligo in New South Wales. The family was also well known at Goorling near Bourke, where they owned a large sheep station. After completing public school in Elsternwick in Victoria, Thomas joined his parents as an overseer at a property near Marulen in the Southern Highlands.

Thomas Creswick followed two of his older brothers into the Australian Imperial Force, enlisting in Sydney in September 1916. After a period of training at the Showgrounds at Moore Park in Sydney, he embarked with a reinforcement group for the 37th Battalion. The following months were spent training on Salisbury Plain in England, before Creswick sailed for France; he then moved north into Belgium and joined the 37th Battalion at Ploegsteert. After spending the next six months holding positions in the relatively quiet “nursery sector” near the town of Armentieres, the battalion was preparing to go into battle for the first time in a major British effort to capture the Messines Ridge.

On 6 June 1917, 19 underground mines were detonated beneath the German positions just moments before the infantry began their assault. The 37th Battalion advanced across the Petite Douve and captured a line of German positions beside the town of Messines. Although successful in capturing the devastated German positions, Australian troops were subjected to intense bombardments and counter-attacks over the following days. Victory came at a heavy price, with the 37th suffering over 400 casualties in three days of fighting.

Among them was Thomas Creswick, who was last seen in a shell hole near Bethlehem Farm on 7 June, nursing gunshot wounds to his leg and side. Members of the battalion wrapped Creswick in a groundsheet and filled his water bottle before moving on, knowing he would soon be collected by stretcher bearers; but nobody saw or heard anything of him after the fighting ended. He was listed as missing in action, until a court of inquiry in January 1918 determined that he had been killed sometime between 7 and 9 June 1917. He was just 19 years old.

The historical records do not relate the grief the Creswick family endured after learning of Thomas’s death. But we can only imagine their sorrow after learning that Thomas’s older brother, Norman, had also been killed fighting at Messines, although he too was nowhere to be found. Both Creswick brothers are commemorated on the same panel of the Menin Gate Memorial among over 6,000 Australians killed fighting in Belgium who have no known grave.

Thomas Creswick is listed on the Roll of Honour on my right, among almost 62,000 Australians who died while serving in the First World War.

His is just one of the many stories of service and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Private Thomas Sefton Creswick, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Aaron Pegram
Historian, Military History Section