Fonds

R. H. S. Cresswell was born in Staffordshire, England, on 30 September 1869. He emigrated to Canada in 1889, working in the oilfields near Sarnia, Ontario, and for a railway before setting up his own business in Hamilton. After a trip back to Europe he returned to Canada in 1895 and once again set himself up in business in Hamilton.

Cresswell and six companions left that city on 14 April 1898 to go search for gold in Dawson City, Yukon. After travelling to Edmonton by train, the team bought provisions and started its epic northern march, which ended on 7 October 1899 after perilous boat journeys on the Athabaska, Mackenzie and Peel rivers and the death of one team member from scurvy during the winter. There is no indication that Cresswell found gold in the Yukon, but he did launch a profitable business selling alcohol and cigars. Around 1904 he left the Yukon for Vancouver, where he lived for the next 52 years.

Cresswell married Minnie Sorensen, originally from Everett, Washington. He had met her in 1906 in Dawson City where she and her four sisters ran a women's wear store that was very profitable during the Gold Rush. After the couple enjoyed a long honeymoon in the Orient, Cresswell purchased a real estate firm in Vancouver and operated a mercantile business in the Fraser Valley. He died in February 1958 in Vancouver at the age of 89, leaving behind his wife, two sons and a daughter.