Walsh Wynn Vaux Cressy

W.W.V. Cressy was just 17 when he enlisted for the Boer War, putting his age up to 20. He was rejected from being a soldier on foot due to his high insteps, but not to be beaten, he swapped identities with one Tommy Short and managed to enlist in the Third N.S.W. Mounted Rifles, as No. 1073 Trooper Thomas Short.

Although born in Canterbury, Sydney (where his family spent just four years), he did his schooling at Tamworth West School.

After the Boer war he worked as a horseman on cattle farms in the Hunter Valley in the Quirindi area south of Tamworth.

He emigrated to N.Z. to look for work.

In New Zealand, he became a timber mill manager, eventually owning his own mill, which unfortunately had to be sold due to the Depression. He then went into farming for a time, after which he worked for the Horowhenua County Council, part of his job being animal control.

During his working life, the family lived at Mataroa near Taihape, and in the Ohakane-Ratihi area saw-milling. They then farmed at Ohau south of Levin, and later moved to 183 Cambridge St, Levin.

- Information provided by Lorna Lindsey.