Walter Cresswell O'Reilly

Cresswell O'Reilly
Chief Commonwealth Film Censor
In office November 1928 – June 1942
Preceded by	Robert Wallace
Succeeded by	J. O. Alexander
10th Mayor of Ku-ring-gai
In office 19 March 1929 – 5 December 1933
Deputy	Audley Hubert Brennan James Briton Ernest Selby
Preceded by	George Christie
Succeeded by	Ernest Selby
Alderman on Ku-ring-gai Municipal Council
In office 10 December 1928 – January 1935
In office 12 November 1944 – 14 December 1948
Councillor on Warringah Shire Council
In office 14 November 1939 – 11 December 1941
Preceded by	Frederick Latham
Constituency	A Riding
Personal details
Born	(1877-06-06)6 June 1877 Sydney, New South Wales
Died	20 December 1954(1954-12-20) (aged 77) Pymble, New South Wales, Australia
Spouse	Ethel Jane Vickery
Education	Newington College University of Sydney

[Walter] Cresswell O'Reilly (6 June 1877 – 20 December 1954) was an Australian public servant who became Chief Commonwealth Film Censor. He "dominated and shaped Australian film censorship" and was able to "define appropriate mass entertainment" for nearly twenty years.[1] He was the founding president of the National Trust of Australia (NSW) and an early urban conservationist.

Early life

Cresswell O'Reilly (he was always known by his second name) was born in New South Wales to Irish-American physician Dr Walter William Joseph O’Reilly and his Ballarat-born wife, Mary Narcissa O’Reilly (née Taylor).

He was educated at Newington College (1894–1896)[2] and the University of Sydney from where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1903.[3] He married Ethel Jane Vickery, a granddaughter of philanthropist Ebenezer Vickery,[4] in 1909.

Army service

During World War I he served with the Australian Imperial Force in France as a gunner and then as a warrant officer, class 1, with the Army Education Service.

Public service

Before attending university, O'Reilly had been a junior clerk in the Department of Justice. After the war, he returned to the public service as an officer-in-charge in the justice branch of the Attorney-General's Department. In 1925 O'Reilly was nominated by the Methodist Church, the YMCA, and the Businessmen's Efficiency League as the senior Commonwealth film censor in Sydney.[5]

In this position he was de facto chief censor, as most films arrived in Australia through Sydney. Three years later he became chief Commonwealth censor and was reappointed annually. He was joined by Eleanor Glencross who was appointed after lobbying by women's organisations. She was replaced in 1930 by Gwendoline Dorothea Julie Hansen[6] who was appointed for three years and then also reappointed annually.[7] The third member of the board was Colonel LJ Hurley.[8] Up until 1935 they were rejecting half of the films that were assigned for assessment. This proportion was relaxed as the US film industry imposed its own censorship in 1934.[9] O'Reilly retired in 1942. As chief censor he introduced, in 1930, the classification system that graded films 'For General Exhibition' and 'Not Suitable for Children'.[10]

Community service

O'Reilly was a Wesleyan and served as a trustee of Pymble Methodist Church for over 50 years, and was a choirmaster, Sunday-school-superintendent and lay preacher. He was elected to Ku-ring-gai Municipal Council as an alderman and as mayor from 1929 until 1933. As mayor his vision for the Upper North Shore involved what he called the two TPs — Town Planning and Tree Planting and hence he became known as the Tree Mayor.[11] As an early conservationist he was president of the State branch of the Australian Forest League and a member of the Forestry Advisory Council.[12] In 1945 he became the founding president of the New South Wales division of the National Trust of Australia. At Wesley College, University of Sydney he was a councillor and treasurer.

Honours

• Cresswell O’Reilly Lookout – 1030–1066 Pacific Highway, Pymble

Publications

• Wesley College (within the University of Sydney): a historical outline (Syd, 1956)[13]
• Ku-ring-gai Shire: early history and development (Syd, 1948 & 1963)

Bibliography

• I Bertrand – Film Censorship in Australia (Brisb, 1978)
• G Shirley and B Adams – Australian Cinema (Syd, 1983)
• Film Censorship Board – Annual Reports 1925–42
• Sydney Morning Herald – 17 June 1942

See also

• Annie Forsyth Wyatt

External links

• Joel Greenberg, Walter Cresswell O'Reilly (1877–1954), Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 11, MUP, 1988, p. 96.

References

1. Australian Dictionary of Biography. Retrieved 29 May 2008
2. Newington College Register of Past Students 1863–1998 (Syd, 1999) pp147
3. Alumni Sidneienses. Retrieved 29 May 2008
4. Australian Dictionary of Biography. Retrieved 29 May 2008
5. "OVERCOMING FEAR". The Sydney Morning Herald. No. 30, 914. New South Wales, Australia. 1 February 1937. p. 7. Retrieved 9 May 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
6. "Vol.11 No.518 (22 January 1930)". Trove. Retrieved 24 October 2023.
7. Wright, Andrée, "Gwendoline Dorothea Julie Hansen (1896–1971)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 24 October 2023
8. "FILM CENSORS DEFENDED". West Australian. 6 April 1933. Retrieved 24 October 2023.
9. Greenberg, Joel, "Walter Cresswell O'Reilly (1877–1954)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 24 October 2023
10. OFLC Annual Reports Extracts 1925–1963. Retrieved 29 May 2008
11. [The Pymble Cottages Group The Historian Kathie Reith] Retrieved 9 May 2024.
12. Ku-ring-gai Council. Retrieved 29 May 2008
13. National Library of Australia. Retrieved 29 May 2008

Government offices
Preceded by Robert Wallace	Chief Commonwealth Film Censor 1928 – 1941	Succeeded by J. O. Alexander
Civic offices
Preceded by George Christie	Mayor of Ku-ring-gai 1929 – 1933	Succeeded by Ernest Selby