Major Thomas Joseph Crean, VC, DSO. Born: Dublin, April 19, 1873. Died: London, March 25 1923. Thomas Crean was one of three Irish rugby internationals from the Wanderers club in Dublin who won the Victoria Cross. He was the most dashing international forward of his generation and a noted hell-raiser. He was the linchpin of two championship-winning sides for Ireland and the star forward for the combined Ireland/England tour party who won a Test series 3-1 against the Springboks in 1896. He trained as a doctor at the Royal College of Surgeons - he received the Royal Humane Society medal for saving a fellow student, William Ahern, from drowning in the sea off Blackrock College - and set up a practice in Johannesburg at the end of the 1896 tour before joining the Imperial Light Horse two years later. Crean, 28, was a surgeon captain in the 1st Imperial Light Horse, South African Forces, during the Boer War when he was awarded the Victoria Cross. On Dec 18, 1901, during the action at Tygerkloof Spruit, Surgeon Captain Crean, although wounded himself, continued to attend to the wounded in the firing line, under heavy fire at only 150-yards range. He did not stop until hit a second time, when he was seriously wounded. After the outbreak of the 1914-1918 War Dr. Tom Crean rejoined the R.A.M.C. on 12th August 1914 at the rank of Surgeon Capt. and served with the 1st Cavalry Brigade, being wounded several times and "twice mentioned in dispatches" and was created a companion of the Distinguished Service Order - the DSO. He was promoted Major on 26th February 1916 and commanded the 44th Field Ambulance, British Expeditionary Force in France. Later he was appointed Medical Officer in Charge of the Hospital in the Royal Enclosure, Ascot where he once performed a life saving trepanning operation on a jockey who was thrown from his horse during a race. He ran out onto the course in his shirt sleeves and saved the jockey's life by removing portions of the bones of his skull with a hammer and chisel.He also won the DSO on the western front during the First World War. Crean established a medical practice in Mayfair but, depressed by his injuries, started drinking heavily and died a broken man in 1923. http://www.geocities.com/medal_society/journal/tcrean.html
Crean, Thomas Joseph VC DSO Hon FRCS LRCP LRCSI played for Ireland and Great Britain Internationals: 9 : 1894 E+ S+ W+ ; 1895 E- S- W- (1t) ; 1896 E+ S= W+ (1t) Great Britain Internationals: 4 : 1896 SA+ A+ SA+ SA- Thomas Crean was born on 19 April 1873, in Morrison’s Hotel, Dublin. His father, Michael Crean, had left Ireland in 1860 to travel to Italy and fight in the Papal Brigade against Garibaldi and the Red Shirts at the Battle of Spoleto. Played as a Forward for: Clongowes College, Wanderers, Johannesburg Wanderers Profession: Medicine War service: Captain, Temporary Major, Royal Army Medical Corps; DSO Gazetted 23 June 1915 Remarks: At Clongowes College he was noted for his physical prowess, and his ability at Rugby. From Clongowes he enrolled in the Royal College of Surgeons in 1891. He was awarded the Royal Humane Society’s Testimonial for saving the life of a swimmer who had got into difficulty at Blackrock. Playing for Wanderers, he was first capped against England in 1894. He was noted as being the best of a good Irish pack in 1896, when he scored the winning try v Wales, which enabled Ireland to win the Championship. He toured South Africa with the 1899 Great Britain team. The tourists had lunch with the Prime Minister of Cape Province before the match v Western Province. Crean limited the team to four tumblers of champagne each, but it seems the limit may have been exceeded; the match was a 0-0 draw. When the tourists played Western Province again later in the tour, they won 32-0. A fellow tourist was Robert Johnston, who was also warded the Victoria Cross for action in the South African War. Both Crean and Johnston played for Wanderers, Ireland and Great Britain, both settled in South Africa, where they played for Transvaal and served as Captains in the South African War. “It was always said that the real captain of the [1899 GB] tour was the incredible Irish character, Tommy Crean, who became a doctor at the age of 22. Standing 6ft 2in and over 17 stone, he was a huge man for his time, handsome and with great energy. The Reverend Walter Carey, a fellow 1899 tourist, who was to coin the Barbarians’ motto ‘Rugby football is a game for a gentleman of all classes, but never for a bad sportsman of any class’ and who later became Bishop of Bloemfontein, said of Crean: ‘He was the most Irish, the most inconsequent, the most gallant, the most lovable personality one could ever imagine and he made the centre of the whole tour'.’" Tommy Crean served as a Lieutenant, later Surgeon-Captain, in the 1st Imperial Light Horse (Natal) in South Africa. There is a mention of him in The National Army Museum Book of the Boer War, which includes a letter from Lt David Maxwell of the 1st ILH to his parents: “Tommy Cream, (sic) a huge Irish giant & I always share our blankets & as he is a restless person I usually wake up to find his enormous mass of flesh weighing about 18 stone lying over me – uncomfortable but warm.” Lt Crean was awarded the Victoria Cross, the citation: During the action with de Wet at Tygerskloof on 18 December 1901, this officer continued to attend to the wounded (Corporal Peter Malan and Trooper Arthur Peckitt) in the firing line, under a very heavy fire at only 150 yards range after he had himself been wounded, and only desisted when he was hit a second time, and, as it was first thought, mortally wounded. In The History of the Lions, “The story goes that, when the Light Horse were attacking the Boer forces, he was hit and bowled over. Dazed, he shouted ‘By Christ, I’m kilt entoirely.’ Happily, he got up and found that, although not dead, he was badly wounded so, with his Irish dander up, he let out some wild yells and let a bayonet charge to take a vital Boer stronghold, for which he received the supreme award for gallantry.” In 1906 he left the Army, married, and moved to London. He rejoined the Army in August 1914, and was sent to France on 15 August, attached to the 1st Cavalry Brigade, and took part in the retreat from Mons. Crean was awarded the DSO on 23 June 1915, and was appointed Temporary Major and commander of the 44th Field Ambulance early in 1916. His health suffered, and he was invalided back to the UK in late 1916, relinquishing his acting rank on 12 September 1916. Unfortunately, his health remained poor, and he experienced financial problems. He died on 25 March 1923, and is buried in St Mary’s Roman Catholic Cemetery, Kensal Rise, West London. His Victoria Cross is displayed in the Army Medical Services Museum, Aldershot.
