32897 Pte Cyril Crees, MGC

32897 Private Cyril Gordon Crees of the 67th Company, Machine Gun Corps, died of wounds on the 18th March 1917. He was 20 years old, the son of Richard Peplow and Janet Crees of Colchester, Essex. Cyril was born in Tiptree and enlisted at Colchester. Soldiers Died in The Great War notes that he had previously served with the Essex Regiment and had the number 1113.

Cyril's service record survives in WO 363 and so from this we can see that he joined the 8th (Cyclist) Battalion as a 17-year-old on the 5th August 1914. He gave his trade as "builder" (in the employ of Mr Crees - presumably his father) and his address as Berechurch Lodge. Cyril's papers indicate that he was 17 years and 11 months old, five feet ten inches tall and of "fair" development.

Cyril was transferred to the Machine Gun Corps on the 27th Aporil 1916 and sailed for Salonica on the 5th July that year. He was wounded in action on the 17th March 1917 and died at the 28th Casualty Clearing Station the following day. He is buried in Karasouli Military Cemetery in Greece.

A return completed by his father in March 1920 indicates that by then, the family was living at 26 Mile End (presumably Mile End Road), and that Cyril had three brothers (one of these serving with the RAF on HMS Furious, and one at the 5th Indian General Hospital in Cairo), and two sisters both living at home with their parents and the only other brother still in the UK.

Crees Earthmoving Contractors is an established Essex business in White Colne today and it seems plausible, given the uncommon surname, that this is a descendant of Richard Peplow Crees's business.

At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.

Sources:

Ancestry (MIC)
Soldiers Died in The Great War
Army Service Numbers
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission