Oscar Creswick
Oscar Creswick (photo: Roy Ward)
Oscar Creswick was born on 25 February 1886 in Bradfield, the son of George Creswick, a farmer, and his wife Avis (nee Crawshaw). He had an older brother Fred and three sisters: Ida, Louisa and Avis Elizabeth.
Oscar was just five years old when his mother died in March 1890. By the time of the 1891 Census, the Creswick family had moved to Heeley, and George was farming at Newfield Green.
There was further tragedy for George Creswick at the end of 1891 when his daughter Ida died at the age of 11. She was buried in Norton cemetery on 2 December.
Early in 1897 the Creswick family moved to Cannon Hall Farm in Totley and on 5 April 1897 Oscar started attending Totley All Saints School. He probably left school at the age of 14 in 1900 and started working as a farm labourer on his father's farm along with his elder brother Fred.
On 11 November 1908 there was a double wedding at Christ Church, Dore when Oscar married Margaret (Maggie) Revill and his brother Fred married Edith Emily Andrew.
In the 1911 Census Oscar and Maggie were living at 3 Shrewsbury Terrace with their one year old son George who had been baptized at Christ Church on 20 February 1910. Oscar was still working for his father at Cannon Hall.
When war was declared in August 1914, Oscar Creswick was 28 years old. He was probably called up in 1916 and he served with the Army Service Corps in Salonika.
Oscar Creswick, seated right with two pals
The letters RX in front of his army service number indicate that he served with the Army Remount Section. It was the job of the Remount Section and the Army Veterinary Corps to get the horses back into shape after long and arduous sea voyages.
Oscar Creswick and two mules
The Army Service Corps were the unsung heroes of the British Army in the Great War. Soldiers cannot fight without food, equipment and ammunition. Using horse-drawn and motor vehicles, railways and waterways, the Army Service Corps supplied a vast army on many fronts and were one of the great strengths of organization by which the war was won.
Happily, Oscar Creswick was one of the men who survived the horrors of WW1 and he returned to Totley where he became innkeeper at the Cricket Inn. A new member of the family arrived in 1920. On 4 April Oscar and Maggie's daughter Marguerite was baptized at Dore church.
Totley Tug of War Team, 1919. Oscar Creswick is sitting, second from the left.
Oscar became a member of Totley's successful tug of war team which was trained by the local policeman, Constable 'Straightback' Bagshaw.
In 1932 Oscar left the Cricket Inn and went back to farming. He rented Avenue Farm from Jessie Tyzack (nee Fisher), the widow of scythe manufacturer Joshua. Oscar farmed there for some years before moving to a farm in Litton, near Tideswell.
His wife Maggie died in 1957 at the age of 72 and Oscar died on 14 January 1969 at the age of 82.