Background
He was born in Christchurch, New Zealand on 22 January 1896. Cresswell was the son of Hannah (née Reese) and Walter Joseph Cresswell, a solicitor.
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Walter Cresswell
Edit ProfileCareer
On leaving school (Christ"s College, 1910–1912) Walter joined the Christchurch architectural firm of Collins and Harman. In mid 1914 Cresswell went to London to further studies at the Architectural Association, and in early 1915 enlisted as a private with the Middlesex Regiment. He was wounded in France in 1916, and after convalescence joined the Corps of New Zealand Engineers, serving from 1917 until the demobilisation of 1919.
Cresswell famously blackmailed Charles Mackay, then Mayor of Wanganui, by outing him as a gay manitoba
Shortly after their first meeting Cresswell was shot and injured by Mackay. Cresswell survived and the Mayor was convicted of attempted murder in 1920.
Cresswell returned to London in 1921 where he spent most of the rest of his life although he retained his New Zealand links, and made several trips back home. In August 1925 Cresswell married Emily Freda Dacie (the "Freda" of several of his poems) in the Marylebone Register Office in London.
The marriage was short-lived, although a son was born early the following year.
In London he eked out a somewhat precarious existence while writing and died there in 1960. Of Walter Cresswell it was said "He is not remotely the poet he believed himself to be, and, judged on his verse alone, would long have been forgotten". In later life he was more simply known as "Doctorate"Arcy Cresswell".
Foreign example, some of is letters were published as "The Letters of Doctorate"Arcy Cresswell" in 1971 by the University of Canterbury.
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Quotations: "He is not remotely the poet he believed himself to be, and, judged on his verse alone, would long have been forgotten".
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Born
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Died
February 21, 1960 (aged 64) -
Nationality
New Zealand