Edmund Creswell
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Col. Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge of ...
Edmund William Creswell (7 November 1849 – 1 May 1931) was a British soldier, who played for the Royal Engineers in the
1872 FA Cup Final The 1872 FA Cup Final was a football match between Wanderers and Royal Engineers on 16 March 1872 at Kennington Oval in London. It was the final of the first staging of the Football Association Challenge Cup (known in the modern era as the FA C ...
. As a soldier, he was engaged mainly in administrative work and never saw
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.


Family and education

Creswell was born in
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on 7 November 1849, the son of Edmund Creswell (1800–1877) and his wife Mary Margaret née Fraser (1826–1892). His father had been appointed postmaster of the colony of Gibraltar in 1831; in 1857, he secured funding from London for building a new post office, and amalgamated the two previous postal services, thus founding the
Royal Gibraltar Post Office The Royal Gibraltar Post Office is the postal services in the British overseas territory of Gibraltar. It is currently a department within the Government of Gibraltar. History The Gibraltar Post Office has been running for over 150 years, a ...
. Creswell was educated at
Bruce Castle School Bruce Castle School, at Bruce Castle, Tottenham, was a progressive school for boys established in 1827 as an extension of Rowland Hill's Hazelwood School at Edgbaston. It closed in 1891. Origins In 1819, Rowland Hill moved his father's Hill To ...
, Tottenham, London followed by the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich (RMA) until 1870. Creswell's brother
William William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...
(1852–1933) became a vice-admiral and is known as the "father" of the
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. Another brother, Frederic (1866–1948) was a Labour Party politician in South Africa, who was
Minister of Defence A defence minister or minister of defence is a cabinet official position in charge of a ministry of defense, which regulates the armed forces in sovereign states. The role of a defence minister varies considerably from country to country; in som ...
from 1924 to 1933. A sister, Mary Catherine (1857–1892) married one of Creswell's teammates from the 1872 FA Cup Final, Hugh Mitchell in 1878.


Football career

Creswell represented Bruce Castle School and the RMA at football. He was Secretary of the Royal Engineers Association Football Club, which, in November 1871, was among fifteen teams who entered the inaugural FA Cup competition, and were allocated a home match in the first round against
Reigate Priory Reigate Priory is a Grade I listed building in Reigate, Surrey. The building now contains a museum and Reigate Priory Junior School. References

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. Reigate Priory, however, withdrew from the competition, sending the Engineers through to the next round on a
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. In the second round, the Engineers beat Hitchin 5–0 on 10 January 1872. At the quarter-final stage, the Engineers beat Hampstead Heathens 3–0, setting up a semi-final against
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which was won 3–0 after a replay. The first FA Cup Final was played at
Kennington Oval The Oval, currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Kia Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, located in the borough of Lambeth, in south London. The Oval has been the home ground of Surrey County Cricket Club since it ...
on 16 March 1872 between the Royal Engineers and Wanderers, the top amateur club of the day. Ten minutes into the match, Creswell was seriously injured, breaking a
collar-bone The clavicle, or collarbone, is a slender, S-shaped long bone approximately 6 inches (15 cm) long that serves as a strut between the shoulder blade and the sternum (breastbone). There are two clavicles, one on the left and one on the rig ...
in a charge on goal. Despite suffering tremendous pain, he refused to leave the pitch and played the remainder of the match out of the action as a "passenger" on the wing. Wanderers took the lead fifteen minutes into the game when
Morton Betts Morton Peto Betts (30 August 1847 – 19 April 1914)
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opened the scoring from an acute angle after Robert Vidal's long dribble. Wanderers continued to exert further pressure on the Engineers' goal and, despite a late rally from the Engineers, Wanderers were able to hold on to their lead and the game ended in a 1–0 victory in their favour. In its report on the match, ''The Sportsman'' commented: "Too much praise cannot be accorded to him for the pluck he showed in maintaining his post, although completely disabled and in severe pain, until the finish". Although Creswell's football career was short, he remained an active sportsman for a long period. He played cricket for the Royal Engineers and other clubs, including the Gentlemen of Hampshire, between 1868 and 1886.


Military career

Creswell graduated from the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich on 8 January 1870, joining the Royal Engineers with the rank of
lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations. The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often ...
. Fellow graduates on the same day were two of his fellow FA Cup finalists, Hugh Mitchell and Henry Rich. Creswell was promoted to captain twelve years later and was further promoted to major on 1 August 1888 and to
lieutenant-colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colo ...
on 12 August 1895, becoming a full
colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge o ...
on 12 August 1899. During his service with the Royal Engineers, Creswell was engaged mainly in administrative work and never saw
active service Active may refer to: Music * ''Active'' (album), a 1992 album by Casiopea * Active Records, a record label Ships * ''Active'' (ship), several commercial ships by that name * HMS ''Active'', the name of various ships of the British Royal ...
. Between January 1870 and August 1872, he was based at
Chatham Chatham may refer to: Places and jurisdictions Canada * Chatham Islands (British Columbia) * Chatham Sound, British Columbia * Chatham, New Brunswick, a former town, now a neighbourhood of Miramichi * Chatham (electoral district), New Brunswic ...
, before going to India on 23 October 1872 where he worked as an assistant engineer until he returned to Chatham in February 1880. Between 1 April 1881 and 31 March 1888, he was seconded to the
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before going to South Africa on 19 April 1888. He returned to England on 18 November 1892 and was then based at Liverpool until 3 June 1894, when he was transferred to Shoeburyness in Essex. On 12 January 1897, he returned to India, where he remained until he retired from the army on 12 August 1900.


Wives and children

On 30 January 1875, he married Emma Mary Carver (1853–1899) at
Byculla Byculla (ISO: Bhāykhaḷā; pronunciation: ʱaːjkʰəɭaː is an area of South Mumbai. Location Byculla is neighboured by Nagpada and Mumbai Central and Mahalaxmi on the west; Agripada, Jacob Circle on the north-west: Chinchpokli to the no ...
, Bombay, India. The couple had nine children, including a son Edmund Fraser Creswell (1876–1941), who became a colonel in the
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. Awarded the
Distinguished Service Order The Distinguished Service Order (DSO) is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, as well as formerly of other parts of the Commonwealth, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, ty ...
in
World War One World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, he worked for the Ammunition Department of the Ministry of Supply in the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
, and died following an accident on 5 November 1941. Following the death of Emma on 11 May 1899, Edmund Creswell married Isabel Agnes Vulliamy (1869–1956) from Paris, in St Marylebone, London on 19 October 1907. Their only child was Sir Michael Justin Creswell (1909–1986) who was the UK Ambassador to Finland, from 1954 to 1958, Yugoslavia from 1960 to 1964, and Argentina from 1964 to 1969. Michael's son,
Alexander Alexander is a male given name. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here are Aleksandar, Al ...
is a renowned architectural artist. Edmund Creswell died at Copse Hill, Ewhurst, Surrey on 1 May 1931.


References


Bibliography

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Creswell, Edmund 1849 births 1931 deaths Association football forwards FA Cup Final players Gibraltarian footballers Gibraltarians Graduates of the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich People educated at Bruce Castle School Royal Engineers officers