Major Thomas Joseph Crean (19 April 1873 – 25 March 1923) was an Irish rugby union player, British Army soldier and doctor. During the Second Boer War, while serving with the Imperial Light Horse, he was awarded the Victoria Cross. In 1902, he was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons. During the First World War he served with the Royal Army Medical Corps and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order.
Crean played rugby for Leinster, Ireland and the British Isles. In 1894, he was a member of the first Ireland team to win both a Home Nations Championship and a Triple Crown. Then in 1896, he helped Ireland win their second Home Nations title. He is one of three Ireland rugby union internationals to have been awarded the Victoria Cross. The other two are Robert Johnston, who also served with the Imperial Light Horse in the Second Boer War, and Frederick Harvey who served in the First World War. Crean, Johnston and Harvey all played club rugby for Wanderers. In 1896 Crean and Johnston were also members of the same British Isles squad that toured South Africa.
Early years
Family
thumb|An illustration of Morrison's Hotel from 1821
Crean was born in Morrison's Hotel, which stood on the corner of Dawson Street and Nassau Street in Dublin. Some accounts give his place of birth as No. 21 Northbrook Road, the Crean family home at the time he won the VC in 1901. He was the fifth child of Michael Theobald Crean, a barrister originally from Fethard in County Tipperary who worked for the Irish Land Commission, and his wife Emma. His maternal grandparents, John and Maryanne Dunn, were the owners of the hotel where he was born. The Dunns' residence was Esker House, Upper Rathmines Road, and Crean's three older sisters - Mary, Emma and Eleanor – were all born there. Both his older and younger brothers, John and Frank Crean, were also born at Morrison's Hotel. A third brother, Richard, died as an infant, and a fourth sister, Alice Mary, was born in 1879 in the Crean family home at No. 7 Upper Pembroke Street. Alice would later marry Alexander Findlater Todd, one of Crean's rugby teammates on the 1896 British Isles tour of South Africa. John followed in his father's footsteps becoming a barrister in the Land Commission and one of his sons was Fr C. P. Crean MBE, Army chaplain with I Corps during WW2 and Head Chaplain of the Irish Defense Forces from 1956 to 1962. Frank studied engineering, emigrating to Canada where he undertook a survey of Saskatchewan in 1908–09 on behalf of the Canadian Government. This was the famous 'Frank Crean Expeditions to the New North-West' and Crean Lake in Prince Albert National Park was named in his honour.
Crean was named after his uncle Dr. Thomas Joseph Crean, a successful practitioner and civil medical officer in the town of Clonmel, County Tipperary. Also from Clonmel was Lieutenant Colonel Dr. John Joseph Crean, a cousin and close friend to his father who had been with General Graham's Suakin Expedition in Sudan following the fall of Khartoum in 1885. John was a Senior Medical Officer throughout England and the colonies, also holding such positions as Principal Civil Medical Officer (PCMO) of the Straits Settlements in 1886. John was Head of the Army Medical Department in Dublin while Crean was in school at Clongowes. Crean ultimately followed in the footsteps of these two men, becoming both a successful practitioner and an esteemed officer of the Royal Army Medical Corps.
Crean's father Michael Theobald Crean was allegedly knighted by Pope Pius IX in the 1860s when he was part of a Clonmel contingent of The Irish Brigade in Italy to defend the papacy from Garibaldi. When he moved to South Africa he played for Johannesburg Wanderers. The tour captain, Johnny Hammond, only played in seven of the 21 games and Crean took over the captains role in his absence, including for two of the Test games.
He was wounded in the stomach and arm during these encounters and was in February 1902 invalided back to England, where he made a full recovery. One week later, on 20 March 1902, the members of St. Vincent's Hospital Football Club gave a dinner at the Dolphin Hotel in his honour. In May the same year, he was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. He was appointed a captain in the Royal Army Medical Corps on 3 September 1902, and was posted at Aldershot Garrison.
First World War
In 1905, Crean married Victoria, daughter of Senor Don Thomas Heredia, of Málaga, Spain, and had two sons, Victor (died young), Patrick, and a daughter, Carmen. Victoria had been a close friend to Crean's sister Alice, since their schooling at Roehampton. He transferred to the army reserve on 8 September 1906, and started a private practice in Harley Street.
Later years
Crean returned to his practice in Harley Street but by now his war service had begun to seriously affect his health and he was unable to maintain the business. Towards the end of his life, Crean suffered from financial difficulties and in June 1922 he was declared bankrupt. He died from diabetes on 25 March 1923, aged 49, at his residence at 13 Queen Street, Mayfair, London.
His VC medal is displayed at the Army Medical Services Museum. On 1 August 2001 the South African Post Office issued a stamp featuring Crean as part of their commemorations for the Second Boer War.
In 2019 his story along with other Wanderers Victoria Cross recipients Robert Johnston and Frederick Maurice Watson Harvey was told in a documentary entitled "Mark Our Place" directed and produced by Ashley Morrison.
References
Sources
- www.angelfire.com
- www.irishrugby.ie
- The Register of the Victoria Cross (1981, 1988 and 1997)
- Ireland's VCs (Dept of Economic Development, 1995)
- Monuments to Courage (David Harvey, 1999)
- Irish Winners of the Victoria Cross (Richard Doherty & David Truesdale, 2000)