Service Details:

7 April	1915                      Enlisted
9 June	1915                      Embarked Australia
August	1915                      Embarked Egypt
10 Sept. – 12 Dec.	1915                      Gallipoli
21 March	1916                      France
6/7 June	1916                      Trench Raid
29 July – 27 Aug.	1916                      Pozieres (Sausage Valley)
4 August	1916                      Pozieres
6 September	1916                      Belgium
14 October	1916                      Promoted Corporal
October	1916                      Ypres and Dernacourt
3 November	1916                      Battle of Ancres Heights & Fricourt
8 November	1916                      Hospital (Trench Fever)
7 March	1917                      Rejoined Battalion
26 March	1917                      Wounded, Attack on Malt Trench
5 February	1918                      Rejoined Battalion
7 April	1918                      Dernacourt
20 April	1918                      Ville Sur-Ancre
May	1918                      Morlancourt
27 June	1918                      Villers-Bretonneux
20 July	1918                      Reverted to Sapper at own request
8 August	1918                      Battle of Amiens
29 August	1918                      Somme
2 Sept	1918                      Mont St. Quentin
31 October	1918                      Married, England
11 November	1918                      Armistice
21 June	1919                      Returned to Australia, with wife
8 February	1920 .....................Discharged

 

 

Biographical Details:

Little, apart from what appears in his service record, is known about William Cresswell. He was born in Hammersmith, London, in 1890. It is not known when he moved to Australia. William gave his profession as Clerk when he enlisted in April 1915 at Bundaberg, Queensland. He also listed May Kirton of Suffolk, England as his Next of Kin.
In May William embarked Brisbane with the originals of the 26th Battalion. After a brief stay in Fremantle, where the 28th Battalion boarded, the Ascanius sailed to Egypt. Here William and his Battalion received further training. His Battalion then served three months at Gallipoli, returned to Egypt for another two months. William eventually reached France in March 1916.
During the Trench Raid, William was the telephonist, supporting linesman, L/Cpl Chandler. This obviously suited him because in July 1918 William reverted to the ranks, from Corporal to sapper, in order to transfer to the Australian Corps Signals Company.
William was hospitalised on several occasions with trench feet, influenza, trench fever and mumps. In March 1917 he suffered a severe GSW to his left leg which kept him in England until Jan 1918. 
William married Elizabeth Harrison on 31st October 1918, at Lancaster, while on leave.  Presumably William had met his future wife during the eight months he had spent in England recovering from his gunshot wound, although it is possible he may have known her from pre-war days before he moved to Australia..
In August 1919 William returned to Australia with his wife.  Presumably they settled in Queensland although there are no supporting records other than in 1928 he applied for Repatriation Benefits in Queensland. Nothing else is known of William’s post-war life.