BIO

Victor Cresdee was a St Peter’s College boy who began his adult life as a speedy Norwood forward flanker and left it as chairman of directors of the Master Butchers’ Association.

Norwood was most unlucky in Victor’s promising first season, 1906, finishing third despite losing only two games.  Victor was the member of a winning team in six of his seven senior matches that year.  The lone defeat came in the second match of the season when Norwood went down to the ultimate premier, Port Adelaide, 7.5 to 3.5 at Adelaide Oval on 19 May.  He was not in the team which lost to North Adelaide in a cut-throat semi-final on 8 September.  North played off for the premiership even though it lost five more games than Norwood during a very wet season.

Victor did not receive many accolades, though one scribe thought he acquitted himself “with credit” when he came on from the bench and contributed to the two-goal defeat of South Adelaide on 7 July.  A highlight of Victor’s season was a trip to Victoria, where Norwood defeated Ballarat, Essendon and Fitzroy. He played only three games in each of the next two seasons, looking on as Norwood took the 1907 premiership.  He bowed out early in 1909 after just one game, filling a wing vacancy against Port at Alberton. Norwood led 0.5 to 0.2 at “lemons” but Port added 1.2 to nil in the last quarter. 

Popularly known as Bill, Victor was born at Parkside on 23 March 1888 to Charles Cresdee and his wife Emma, née Gilham.  The older children were Hilda, Charles, Ralph, Dorothy and Norman. 

Victor played intercollegiate cricket and football.  He was in the St Peter’s team which defeated Prince Alfred 5.9 to 3.6 in an exciting game before a crowd of 8,000 at Adelaide Oval in 1904.  As a runner, he won championships at college, the School of Mines and university.  He represented Adelaide in inter-varsity sports in Sydney.

In 1909 he went into partnership with his father in the butchering firm of C. Cresdee & Son, which had branches in various suburbs, and later became the sole proprietor.

Victor married Ruby Emma Ross, daughter of Alexander Ross of Alice Springs, at the St Peter’s College Chapel.  They had a daughter, Ruby, and a son, Victor, who was living at Coogee, NSW, when he enlisted as a sapper in World War II.

Victor was a prominent member of the Norwood and Henley bowling clubs.  He was president at Henley the year before died at 44 on 23 August 1932 after an operation at Calvary Hospital.  He is buried at North Road Cemetery.

P Robins, D Cox March 2021