alter Alter may refer to: * Alter (name), people named Alter * Alter (automobile) * Alter (crater), a lunar crater * Alter Channel, a Greek TV channel * Archbishop Alter High School, a Roman Catholic high school in Kettering, Ohio * ALTER, a comman ...

Cresswell O'Reilly (6 June 1877 – 20 December 1954) was an Australian

public servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

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. He was the founding president of the

National Trust of Australia The National Trust of Australia, officially the Australian Council of National Trusts (ACNT), is the Australian national peak body for community-based, non-government non-profit organisations committed to promoting and conserving Australia's Ind ...

(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 ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

to Irish-American physician Dr Walter William Joseph O’Reilly and his

Ballarat Ballarat ( ) is a city in the Central Highlands (Victoria), Central Highlands of Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. At the 2021 Census, Ballarat had a population of 116,201, making it the third largest city in Victoria. Estimated resid ...

-born wife, Mary Narcissa O’Reilly (née Taylor). He was educated at

Newington College , motto_translation = To Faith Add Knowledge , location = Inner West and Lower North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales , country = Australia , coordinates = , pushpin_map = A ...

(1894–1896) and the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's si ...

from where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1903. He married Ethel Jane Vickery, a granddaughter of philanthropist

Ebenezer Vickery Ebenezer Vickery (1 March 1827 – 20 August 1906) was an Australian businessman, pastoral farming, pastoralist and philanthropist. Early life Ebenezer was born in London and arrived in Sydney with his parents and siblings aboard the ''Richa ...

, in 1909.

Army service

During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

he served with the Australian Imperial Force in France as a gunner and then as a

warrant officer Warrant officer (WO) is a rank or category of ranks in the armed forces of many countries. Depending on the country, service, or historical context, warrant officers are sometimes classified as the most junior of the commissioned ranks, the mos ...

, 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 YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It was founded on 6 June 1844 by George Williams in London, originally ...

, and the Businessmen's Efficiency League as the senior Commonwealth film censor in Sydney. 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 until 1942 when he retired. As chief censor he introduced, in 1930, the classification system that graded films 'For General Exhibition' and 'Not Suitable for Children'.

Community service

O'Reilly was a

Wesleyan Wesleyan theology, otherwise known as Wesleyan– Arminian theology, or Methodist theology, is a theological tradition in Protestant Christianity based upon the ministry of the 18th-century evangelical reformer brothers John Wesley and Charles W ...

and served as a trustee of

Pymble Pymble is a suburb on the Upper North Shore of Sydney in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Pymble is north of the Sydney Central Business District in the local government area of Ku-ring-gai Council. West Pymble is a separate suburb ...

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 An alderman is a member of a Municipal government, municipal assembly or council in many Jurisdiction, jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council membe ...

and as mayor from 1929 until 1933. As an early conservationist he earned a reputation as the 'tree mayor' and was president of the State branch of the Australian Forest League and a member of the Forestry Advisory Council. 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 Wesley College is a co-residential college of 265 students within the University of Sydney. The college occupies a site on the main campus of the University of Sydney and was built on a sub-grant of Crown land. Wesley is one of six on-campus co ...

he was a councillor and treasurer.

Honours

* Cresswell O’Reilly Lookout – 1030–1066 Pacific Highway,

Publications

* Wesley College (within the University of Sydney): a historical outline (Syd, 1956)National Library of Australia
Retrieved 29 May 2008 * 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 ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper i ...

– 17 June 1942

External links

* Joel Greenberg
Walter Cresswell O'Reilly (1877–1954)

Australian Dictionary of Biography The ''Australian Dictionary of Biography'' (ADB or AuDB) is a national co-operative enterprise founded and maintained by the Australian National University (ANU) to produce authoritative biographical articles on eminent people in Australia's ...

, Volume 11, MUP, 1988, p. 96.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oreilly, Walter Cresswell 1877 births 1954 deaths Australian Methodists University of Sydney alumni People educated at Newington College Wesleyan Methodists 20th-century Methodists Shire Presidents and Mayors of Ku-ring-gai