Colin Creswell was born in Largs Bay, Port Adelaide in South Australia on 12 September 1894, the son of Lieutenant William Rook Creswell (later Rear Admiral Sir William Rooke Creswell and the First Member of the Naval Board, Royal Australian Navy) and Adelaide Creswell, of Ferndale, Silvan, Victoria, Australia.

He joined the Royal Navy as a Cadet on 15 May 1907 and trained at the Royal Naval College Osborne on the Isle of Wight and then at the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth.  He was promoted to Midshipman on 15 January 1912 and was appointed to the cruiser HMS MINOTAUR on the China Station on the same date.  This was followed by an appointment to the cruiser HMAS ENCOUNTER on 10 June 1913 and then to the battle cruiser HMAS AUSTRALIA on 24 May 1913 ‘loaned for duty under the Australian Government’.  He was promoted to Sub Lieutenant on 15 May 1914.  HMAS AUSTRALIA joined the Grand Fleet at Rosyth on 17 February 1916 and was allocated to the 2^nd Battle Cruiser Squadron.  On 23 April 1916 HMAS AUSTRALIA collided with the Battle Cruiser HMNZS NEW ZEALAND in fog and both had to return to the dockyard for repairs.  As a result HMAS AUSTRALIA was not available to participate in the Battle of Jutland.

Colin Creswell was then appointed to HMS DOLPHIN ‘under Training’.  The Nominal List of 1 April 1916 indicates that he had qualified as a submariner and had been appointed to the Submarine Depot Ship HMS VULCAN ‘for Submarine Duties’.  He was next appointed to the Submarine Depot Ship HMS ARROGANT at Dover ‘for Submarine C22 as First Lieutenant’and then to the Submarine Depot Ship HMS MAIDSTONE  ‘for Submarine E47 as First Lieutenant’ on 28 August 1916.  HMS E47 was built by Fairfield at Govan on the Clyde and commissioned in October 1916. E47 was lost with all hands in the North Sea, cause unknown, on 20 August 1917.

Colin Creswell is commemorated on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial on Panel No 24.