This book started out as just a list of names for an exhibition.
In 2013, Margaret Fulwood from the Creswick Museum attended the annual conference of Museums Australia (Victoria), now called AMaGA (Victoria), held in Geelong. Following a session on Anniversaries & Exhibition Planning chaired by Denis Baguley, the CEO of the Shrine of Remembrance, Margaret fell into conversation with one of the panellists, Dr Marina Larsson from the Veterans Unit in the Department of Planning and Community Development. A discussion about the forthcoming World War 1 celebrations, especially the imminent Gallipoli centenary, uncovered the fact that there was a government grant that would be available to restore historic plaques and honour boards. Margaret’s mind immediately went to the Creswick School Honour Board, in need of restoration. In its turn, this restoration would spark the idea for a much larger project of commemoration.
Over 900 men and women born in the Creswick area answered the call to enlist in WW1. In 2015, the exhibition ‘They Answered the Call’ remembered those that went overseas on what they thought would be a great adventure. For this exhibition, Margaret began to collect as many names and photographs as she could of WW1 service personnel born in the Creswick district.
The Museum’s artefact collection included several items listing the names of local enlisted soldiers, such as the Creswick State School & North Creswick School Honour Roll books, as well as other resources like a database of honour roll boards of the district and a complete set of the Creswick Advertiser, digitised through 1970. To supplement those sources, Margaret ran a search on the National Archives of Australia website ‘Discovering ANZACs’, looking by town names. Her first sweep yielded just under 800 soldiers’ names. The number was a surprise to Margaret, but with further research it continued to increase. The Museum’s criterion for inclusion on the exhibition list was that the soldier or nurse was born in the Shire of Creswick, including the Borough of Creswick at the time of enlistment, but a major problem was many of the enlisted men gave their birthplace as Ballarat. The Shire and Borough of Creswick covered a total of 29 towns. Many today exist in name only.
There were some names that were little more than just a name and number. The Museum was fortunate that some members of the public provided copies of photographs to add to the collection. Others gave or loaned memorabilia. Research revealed stories like that of Gilbert Brinsden (P. 109), a shopkeeper over the enlistment age who was both a Justice of the Peace and local councillor and was sent white feathers. He later enlisted and was killed in France; the Museum now holds his brass memorial plaque otherwise known as the ‘Dead Man’s Penny‘. Horace Clive Miller’s(P. 406) enlistment papers stated that he was born in Ballarat, but a paper published in South Australia alerted Margaret to the fact he might have been a Creswick boy. Miller was in fact born in Creswick but left when he was a month old, and it was after reading his own autobiography that Margaret was able to include the pilot in the exhibition. William Parkes (P.447), the other local pilot in the exhibition, is listed on the State School Honour board. Creswick Museum had listed the board on the Victorian Collections website as being part of the Museum’s collection. A cousin of William Parkes over in England saw the board with Parkes’ name listed online and contacted the Museum requesting
photographs and information on Parkes’ grave. The Museum’s collection also includes the Dead Man’s Penny for Felix Vague (P. 579), who is probably the first man from the Creswick district to have been killed at Gallipoli. Dan Toohey (P. 563) won the MC in France, but his story was familiar in the area at the time as his father had his letters, often with poems, printed in the Creswick Advertiser. The Lambert brothers’ story (P. 327-330) is still well-known in the area, but there was another mother living in Creswick who not only worried about three sons, one a POW, but also about her husband, who was likewise fighting overseas.
In late 2014, the Creswick-Smeaton Returned and Services League (RSL) Sub-Branch met with Margaret about her project and added her research to their website, listing 871 names of local servicemen
and women and linking each with their service records on ‘Discovering ANZACs’. This allowed the community to view the names and let the RSL know if a family member had been missed. In July 2014, RSL decided to place a cross for each of the 871 names in the Field of Crosses as part of their 2015 Commemoration. With the assistance of the Buninyong Men’s Shed, which made 900 crosses, and calligrapher Andrew Thomas, who hand-wrote each name on the crosses, the Field of Crosses on ANZAC
Day 2015 had just on 1100 crosses on display. This was originally intended to be a one-off event, but due to the response from the community, the WW1 crosses are now a permanent part of the Field of Crosses Memorial.
In January 2015, the Creswick & District Historical Society (CDHS) approached the Creswick-Smeaton RSL about putting a book together on the Creswick and district men and women who served in the 1st World War. In February, following a combined meeting with the CDHS and RSL, it was decided that the book would be based on the RSL WW1 Crosses and Phil Greenbank from the RSL was appointed as Project Coordinator.
Research for the book started in October 2015, with Margaret’s list of names of Creswick servicemen and women being divided into four smaller lists that were distributed among the four members of the CDHS who were taking on the detailed research of the enlistees’ service records. This research was made easier by the fact that the names on Margaret’s original list that were added to the RSL website had already been linked to each of the service personnel’s records on ‘Discovering ANZACs’. Shortly after the research started, two members dropped out, leaving Val Lawrence and Marjorie Poole. Once the pair finished researching the names on their own lists, Val then took on the research for the two remaining lists. After the original four lists of names had been finished, Val then cross-checked all the names on the local honour boards to identify any that may have been missed due to their place of birth not being recorded correctly. Over 90 new names were added to the enlistees’ list as a result.
With the initial research completed, Phil Greenbank commenced the setting out of the book, along with supplemental research into the names of the ships that transported our troops and the abbreviations used in the service records, which would be known to those in the Records Office at the time, but not to us 100 years later.
Over the next four years additional names were submitted for the book with over 80% meeting the book’s criteria. In February 2020, the book went to the printers for a launch on ANZAC Day, but COVID-19 restrictions cancelled the ANZAC DAY service. At this time, another 20 names were submitted and as the book has not been printed due to COVID, it was decided to include any names that qualified. Eleven met the qualifications. When the research of their records was started, we were unable to access the Discovering ANZAC site and an email was sent to Canberra where it was found that there was a bug in their program, which was not fixed until late November. It had been planned for a Remembrance Day launch but with no access to Discovering ANZACS until the end of November and COVID restrictions, the Remembrance Day service was cancelled. Once we had access to Discovering ANZACS, the final names were researched and added to the book.
The following 12 names were not able to be included in the main part of the book but have been included at the end of the original listing commencing on page 636. They are: Silas Atkins, Charles Robert Curran, David Dunstan, Charles Joseph Finlayson, Thomas John Flanagan, Frederick George Fletcher, Francis Joseph Foley, Henry Alexander McMillan, William Mineall, Lawrence Richmond Sheehan and Albert Henry Smith.
They can be found in their correct order in the “Enlistees Quick Index."
This year on ANZAC Day 2021, there will be a total of 979 crosses in the Creswick WW1 Memorial. Of the 180 specially-marked crosses, 176 made the supreme sacrifice overseas - 123 Killed in Action, 40 Died of Wounds, 10 Died of Illness Overseas and 3 from Accidental Death. 4 Died of Illness in Australia before embarking. Nine were Prisoners of War, with one dying in captivity.
One in six enlistees did not come home. These are the stories of all 979 enlistees.
In 2013, Margaret Fulwood from the Creswick Museum attended the annual conference of Museums Australia (Victoria), now called AMaGA (Victoria), held in Geelong. Following a session on Anniversaries & Exhibition Planning chaired by Denis Baguley, the CEO of the Shrine of Remembrance, Margaret fell into conversation with one of the panellists, Dr Marina Larsson from the Veterans Unit in the Department of Planning and Community Development. A discussion about the forthcoming World War 1 celebrations, especially the imminent Gallipoli centenary, uncovered the fact that there was a government grant that would be available to restore historic plaques and honour boards. Margaret’s mind immediately went to the Creswick School Honour Board, in need of restoration. In its turn, this restoration would spark the idea for a much larger project of commemoration.
Over 900 men and women born in the Creswick area answered the call to enlist in WW1. In 2015, the exhibition ‘They Answered the Call’ remembered those that went overseas on what they thought would be a great adventure. For this exhibition, Margaret began to collect as many names and photographs as she could of WW1 service personnel born in the Creswick district.
The Museum’s artefact collection included several items listing the names of local enlisted soldiers, such as the Creswick State School & North Creswick School Honour Roll books, as well as other resources like a database of honour roll boards of the district and a complete set of the Creswick Advertiser, digitised through 1970. To supplement those sources, Margaret ran a search on the National Archives of Australia website ‘Discovering ANZACs’, looking by town names. Her first sweep yielded just under 800 soldiers’ names. The number was a surprise to Margaret, but with further research it continued to increase. The Museum’s criterion for inclusion on the exhibition list was that the soldier or nurse was born in the Shire of Creswick, including the Borough of Creswick at the time of enlistment, but a major problem was many of the enlisted men gave their birthplace as Ballarat. The Shire and Borough of Creswick covered a total of 29 towns. Many today exist in name only.
There were some names that were little more than just a name and number. The Museum was fortunate that some members of the public provided copies of photographs to add to the collection. Others gave or loaned memorabilia. Research revealed stories like that of Gilbert Brinsden (P. 109), a shopkeeper over the enlistment age who was both a Justice of the Peace and local councillor and was sent white feathers. He later enlisted and was killed in France; the Museum now holds his brass memorial plaque otherwise known as the ‘Dead Man’s Penny‘. Horace Clive Miller’s(P. 406) enlistment papers stated that he was born in Ballarat, but a paper published in South Australia alerted Margaret to the fact he might have been a Creswick boy. Miller was in fact born in Creswick but left when he was a month old, and it was after reading his own autobiography that Margaret was able to include the pilot in the exhibition. William Parkes (P.447), the other local pilot in the exhibition, is listed on the State School Honour board. Creswick Museum had listed the board on the Victorian Collections website as being part of the Museum’s collection. A cousin of William Parkes over in England saw the board with Parkes’ name listed online and contacted the Museum requesting
photographs and information on Parkes’ grave. The Museum’s collection also includes the Dead Man’s Penny for Felix Vague (P. 579), who is probably the first man from the Creswick district to have been killed at Gallipoli. Dan Toohey (P. 563) won the MC in France, but his story was familiar in the area at the time as his father had his letters, often with poems, printed in the Creswick Advertiser. The Lambert brothers’ story (P. 327-330) is still well-known in the area, but there was another mother living in Creswick who not only worried about three sons, one a POW, but also about her husband, who was likewise fighting overseas.
In late 2014, the Creswick-Smeaton Returned and Services League (RSL) Sub-Branch met with Margaret about her project and added her research to their website, listing 871 names of local servicemen
and women and linking each with their service records on ‘Discovering ANZACs’. This allowed the community to view the names and let the RSL know if a family member had been missed. In July 2014, RSL decided to place a cross for each of the 871 names in the Field of Crosses as part of their 2015 Commemoration. With the assistance of the Buninyong Men’s Shed, which made 900 crosses, and calligrapher Andrew Thomas, who hand-wrote each name on the crosses, the Field of Crosses on ANZAC
Day 2015 had just on 1100 crosses on display. This was originally intended to be a one-off event, but due to the response from the community, the WW1 crosses are now a permanent part of the Field of Crosses Memorial.
In January 2015, the Creswick & District Historical Society (CDHS) approached the Creswick-Smeaton RSL about putting a book together on the Creswick and district men and women who served in the 1st World War. In February, following a combined meeting with the CDHS and RSL, it was decided that the book would be based on the RSL WW1 Crosses and Phil Greenbank from the RSL was appointed as Project Coordinator.
Research for the book started in October 2015, with Margaret’s list of names of Creswick servicemen and women being divided into four smaller lists that were distributed among the four members of the CDHS who were taking on the detailed research of the enlistees’ service records. This research was made easier by the fact that the names on Margaret’s original list that were added to the RSL website had already been linked to each of the service personnel’s records on ‘Discovering ANZACs’. Shortly after the research started, two members dropped out, leaving Val Lawrence and Marjorie Poole. Once the pair finished researching the names on their own lists, Val then took on the research for the two remaining lists. After the original four lists of names had been finished, Val then cross-checked all the names on the local honour boards to identify any that may have been missed due to their place of birth not being recorded correctly. Over 90 new names were added to the enlistees’ list as a result.
With the initial research completed, Phil Greenbank commenced the setting out of the book, along with supplemental research into the names of the ships that transported our troops and the abbreviations used in the service records, which would be known to those in the Records Office at the time, but not to us 100 years later.
Over the next four years additional names were submitted for the book with over 80% meeting the book’s criteria. In February 2020, the book went to the printers for a launch on ANZAC Day, but COVID-19 restrictions cancelled the ANZAC DAY service. At this time, another 20 names were submitted and as the book has not been printed due to COVID, it was decided to include any names that qualified. Eleven met the qualifications. When the research of their records was started, we were unable to access the Discovering ANZAC site and an email was sent to Canberra where it was found that there was a bug in their program, which was not fixed until late November. It had been planned for a Remembrance Day launch but with no access to Discovering ANZACS until the end of November and COVID restrictions, the Remembrance Day service was cancelled. Once we had access to Discovering ANZACS, the final names were researched and added to the book.
The following 12 names were not able to be included in the main part of the book but have been included at the end of the original listing commencing on page 636. They are: Silas Atkins, Charles Robert Curran, David Dunstan, Charles Joseph Finlayson, Thomas John Flanagan, Frederick George Fletcher, Francis Joseph Foley, Henry Alexander McMillan, William Mineall, Lawrence Richmond Sheehan and Albert Henry Smith.
They can be found in their correct order in the “Enlistees Quick Index."
This year on ANZAC Day 2021, there will be a total of 979 crosses in the Creswick WW1 Memorial. Of the 180 specially-marked crosses, 176 made the supreme sacrifice overseas - 123 Killed in Action, 40 Died of Wounds, 10 Died of Illness Overseas and 3 from Accidental Death. 4 Died of Illness in Australia before embarking. Nine were Prisoners of War, with one dying in captivity.
One in six enlistees did not come home. These are the stories of all 979 enlistees.