Patrick Crawford
| Patrick Crawford | |
|---|---|
| Born |
11 October 1933 London |
| Died |
21 February 2009 (aged 75) Holy Cross Hospital Haslemere |
| Allegiance |
 United Kingdom |
| Service/branch |
British Army → Royal Army Medical Corps |
| Years of service | 1960-1993 |
| Rank | Major-General |
| Unit | 7th Gurkha Rifles |
| Battles/wars | Indonesian Confrontation |
| Awards | George Medal |
Major-General Ian Patrick Crawford GM, MRCS was a British Army Medical Doctor and expert on preventive medicine.
Early life
Crawford was born in London, the son of Donald and Florence Crawford.[1] He was educated at Chatham House and St Thomas' Hospital, where he qualified as MRCS and as LRCP.
Military career
He was a house-surgeon, casualty and orthopedicsat the Royal Sussex County Hospital in 1959-1960 until he began National Service with the Royal Army Medical Corps. He extended into a regular commission, before seeing service in Malaysia and Borneo. He then began to focus in preventive medicine and Malaria. From 1968-1972 he was on the staff of the British Military hospital, Singapore, was an instructor at the RAMC training center and a deputy assistant director of Army health in the Ministry of Defense. In 1972, he was offered an exchange assignment with the Australian Army, where he had a visiting lectureship at Queensland University in Brisbane. He returned to England in 1978 where he worked in Army Medical Directorate before going to Germany as director of army health at 1st British Corps, where he served with many NATO medical officers. During this period he conducted studies into the effects of sleep deprivation, extremes of cold and heat and improving army uniforms. In 1981 he served as the Parkes Professor of Preventive Medicine at the Royal Army Medical College and he served in the Defence Medical Services directorate from 1984–1986, after which he was seconded to the Saudi Arabian National Guard from 1986. From 1989 to 1993, he served as Commandant of the Royal Army Medical College.
He retired from the Army in 1993.
Later life
After his Army career, he wrote on preventive medicine and a member of many charities including the Shipwrecked Fishermen and Mariner's Royal Benevolent Fund and a trustee of the Florence Nightingale Museum. He hosted former President Jimmy Carter in 1991 at the centenary celebration of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical diseases. He also become a chairman of the Cocking Parish Council. He January 2003, he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and was confined at Holy Cross Hospital, Haslemere for the last five years of his life. He was survived by his wife, Juliet James, who he married in 1956 and had two sons and a daughter.
Honours and decorations
He was made a Queen's Honorary Physician in 1991 and a Member of the Order of St. John in 1992.
George Medal
On 20 April 1964, while serving as a Captain, he was serving with the 1/7 Gurkha Regiment in Sarawak when the helicopter he was travelling in suffered engine failure, crushing the arm of Major Eric "Birdie" Smith,[2] whose life he saved and arm he amputated without morphia, but stayed with Smith until they were evacuated by helicopter to Simmanggang. Despite complete exhaustion, he helped with surgery at Simmanggang and at Kuching.