Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

He arrived in Australia from England as a 15 year old boy. He had two brothers, Percy and Harold who also served in WW1. A third brother was partially blind and later worked in a munitions factory.

Wilfred’s name is actually spelled WILFRID. He himself was not aware of this until he was in later life and always used the spelling with the “E”

He was a very gentle and religious man who joined up with two other Baptist mates, Sid Butterfield, who served as a nurse at the 1st Australian General Hospital, and Cyril Pellew who was with the 88th Infantry prior to serving with Wilfred in the 11th Battalion where he is recorded as going to “Pigeon School”.

Wilfred was very much concerned about the fact he may have to shoot someone and he hated all the crude language being used by the men he served with.
When wounded in France near Villers-Bretonneux he was only able to survive by crawling to and rolling into a shell hole.

After the war he became a Baptist Minister and ministered in the poorer parts of India until his return to Australia in about 1952

Wilfred was born in London, the tenth, and youngest, child of Nicholas and Alice Crofts on 11 April 1896. Although successful at school, he left at age 14 and obtained a position as a reporter with the local paper, attending local functions such as football matches, weddings and concerts and doubling as office boy. This career ended when Wilfred joined the rest of the family in migrating to Western Australia on 20 January 1911 on the SS Grosser Kurfest. The family arrived in Fremantle on 27 February 1911.

Within weeks of arriving in Fremantle Wilf obtained a position as an office boy but he soon travelled to Cowcowing in the Western Australian wheatbelt with his sister Maude. Wilf obtained work clearing land for farming. After several months Wilf returned to Perth and obtained work as an office boy with leading Perth legal firm, Stone James.

Gwenyth Isobel Harry was born in Sydney on 30 June 1897, the daughter of Welsh born Baptist minister Frederick Edward Harry and Helen Mary Harry, daughter of Frederick Hibberd also a Baptist minister. A sister Freda was also born in Sydney after which the family moved to Ballarat were three more children were born- Ruth, who died age 2 of measles, Wilfred and Jean. The family moved again to Auborn in Victoria and the last child, Kathleen, was born there in 1908.

In August 1913 the Harry family moved to Western Australia where F.E. Harry became Pastor at the Museum St Baptist Church in Perth, the family church for the Crofts family.

Both Mr. and Mrs. Harry were keen supporters of the temperance movement in Perth and both were dedicated to the Church. Mr. Harry took both morning and evening services on Sundays and tutored the young men's bible class in the afternoon. Mrs. Harry assisted with Sunday School and spent Sunday afternoons visiting Christian Endeavour Societies as a State Superintendent, travelling on foot as she considered it wrong to use public transport on Sundays.

Wilf enlisted for service on the outbreak of WW I. He was posted to the 11th Battalion as a signaller. Basic training was conducted at Blackboy Hill north east of Perth. At the completion of basic training the 11th was posted to Egypt and then to France. Wilf saw service at Ypres, the Somme, Pozieres, Fleur Bay, Flers, Polygon Wood and Bullecourt. He was shot in the leg in August 1918 and returned to Perth in January 1919 after a period of hospitalisation in England.

On return to Perth Wilf resumed work with Stone James and, after matriculating by night school study, commenced night classes at the University of Western Australia.

While in the army, Wilf had received regular letters from Mrs. Harry and Gwenyth and Wilf resumed participation in Mr. Harry's congregation on his return to Perth.

Gwenyth had matriculated from Perth Modern School (then a selective high school) and completed a B.A. at the Irwin Street campus of the University of Western Australia in 1918. Gwenyth graduated with first class honours and collected several prizes, including the Alliance Francaise Gold Medal for French. After graduating Gwenyth turned to teaching, first at Perth Modern School and then Bunbury High School in the south west.

In 1918 Gwenyth applied for missionary work with the Foreign Mission Board of Australian Baptists. At that time East Bengal, India was the only place served by Australian Baptists. Gwenyth was accepted and departed for Mymensingh in East Bengal on 23 November 1920.

Wilf studied for the ministry at the Baptist Theological College, Melbourne and also completed a B.A. at the University of Melbourne. In 1923 he too headed to East Bengal for missionary work. In East Bengal the relationship with Gwenyth was resumed. Wilf and Gwenyth were engaged in Calcutta in 1924 and they were married on 13 December 1926 in the mission grounds at Mymensingh. Gwenyth contracted malaria in East Bengal and was to be subject to several lengthy bouts of ill health. The linguistic expertise which Gwenyth had shown at University gained new expression in India where she became fluent in Bengali and several other Indian languages.

Wilf and Gwenyth's first child, Ruth Carey was born in Calcutta on 17 May 1928, the second child Joy Mary was born on 27 April 1930. The family returned to Australia and New Zealand in 1930 as a result of the death of Gwenyth's father in Wellington and to spread the word in relation to the missionary work being done in East Bengal.

The family returned to India in 1931, accompanied by Gwenyth's sister Jean who also took up missionary work. Wilf was based in Birisi (not Bengali territory but Garos - descendants of the Mongols) but the couple were separated during Gwenyth's pregnancy with their third child when Gwenyth stayed at Mymensingh to be near a hospital. The child (their last), Ronald Frederick, was born on 6 December 1932.

Wilf's responsibilities at Birisi were the educational institutions, preaching, and the secretaryship of the Field Council which constituted the administrative structure of the Mission. The children were sent to boarding school in Darjeeling where they obtained an education in English. Later the children were sent to Perth to continue their education.

In May 1947 Wilf was posted to Tukrajhar Mission in Goalpara, Assam. Gwenyth's sister Jean also joined this mission. This area was subjected to riots in 1949 when Gwenyth was in Perth visiting the children. Once the Tukrajhar Mission was established, Wilf and Gwenyth moved back to Baghpara among the Garo.

Gwenyth returned to Perth in 1951, Wilf followed in mid-1952. Gwenyth did not enjoy good health and died in 1960. Wilf continued working for the Church including visits to Papua-New Guinea and a ten month return to Bengal and Assam in 1962. Wilf died in Perth on 8 May 1971.


[SOURCE: "A Gallant and Beautiful Partnership - Gwenyth and Wilfred Crofts" by Joy Devereaux (nee Crofts)]