Researching John Crawley

Nicknamed "Creepy", he promised much in his early career; he was a leading run-scorer at Under-19 international level and Young Cricketer of the Year in 1994. An elegant leg-side hitter and player of spin bowling, a lack of off-side shots hampered his international career, as did injury. He enjoyed a rejuvenation in 2002 when he joined Hampshire, following legal battles with Lancashire, and celebrated his recall to the England team with a Test century at Lord's. Crawley played in 37 Test matches in total.

Crawley nevertheless remained prolific at domestic level, maintaining a batting average of 46.49 into his late-thirties. Upon announcing his retirement in 2009 he was hailed as "one of the most prolific batsmen in county cricket for nearly two decades" and is regarded alongside his contemporaries Graeme Hick and Mark Ramprakash as a hugely talented player, though one who failed to realise his full potential at international level.

Crawley served briefly as an officer in the British army before marrying Constance Thompson in 1892 in England. Both he and his wife sought acting roles, which resulted in their coming to the United States in 1902 with the Ben Greet Players. They starred in Ben Greet productions on both coasts, with Constance, under her married name of Constance Crawley, gaining wide attention in the West as a Shakespearean actress, while Crawley, first under his stage name of J. Sayre Crawley, and later as simply Sayre Crawley, found his best success in the East playing supporting actor and character actor roles in Broadway theatre. As their careers took separate directions, Constance and Sayre separated, with Constance eventually moving to Los Angeles where she starred in several silent films, and Sayre continuing his acting career in New York City.

Constance Crawley died in 1919, after which Sayre in 1922 married his second wife, Mary Ward Holton (1888–1966), who had performed on Broadway under the stage name of Mary Ward. Although he continued in Broadway productions during the 1920s and 1930s, sometimes sharing the stage with Mary Ward, Sayre also did Shakespeare plays at the Garden Theatre, starring opposite Sybil Thorndike, Sydney Greenstreet and others. He was also a charter member with Eva Le Gallienne's Civic Repertory Theatre. When he died on 7 March 1948 in New York, his obituary in The New York Times noted that he had "devoted his career to the New York stage since the turn of the century."

Sawyer had a long friendship with Sybil Thorndike, whom he had known since 1904 when both were members of the Ben Greet players on Greet's third North American Tour. Thorndike refers to Crawley in her letters as "Master Rawdon", after the character Rawdon Crawley in Vanity Fair, and writes that she and others looked up to him as an older brother. Apparently, he was often referred to as Rawdon Crawley among friends and family, both in jest, and in reference to his relationship with his first wife Constance Crawley.

John Brantley Crawley was born in Troy, Alabama, on February 28, 1940. He grew up with his twin brother Larry, his sister Nancy, and his younger brother William in Pike County. His parents are the late Wonnie Bowden Crawley and the late William Douglas Crawley.

Judge Crawley is a graduate of The University of Alabama and The University of Alabama School of Law. He served as a law clerk on the Court of Appeals of Alabama for Judge George Johnson, and he then served and Assistant Attorney General assigned to the Alabama Department of Revenue. He practiced law with John J. Martin in Dothan and, in 1969, returned to Pike County. While practicing law in Troy, he helped establish Hand-In-Hand, a nonprofit organization devoted to helping handicapped students. In April 1991, he was appointed Circuit Judge of the 12th Judicial Circuit by Governor Guy Hunt and served until January 1993. He then resumed his law practice until he was elected to the Court of Civil Appeals and took office in January 1995. He was re-elected in November 2000.

Judge Crawley served on the Alabama Supreme Court's Task Force on Judicial Elections. He currently serves on the Supreme Court Standing Committee on the Alabama Rules of Juvenile Procedure, the Alabama State Bar Committee on Alternative Methods of Dispute Resolution, and the State Agency ADR Task Force. He is a member of the Judicial Inquiry Commission, having been appointed to that position by the Alabama Supreme Court. He is the author of "Is The Honeymoon Over for Common-Law Marriage: A Consideration of the Continued Viability of the Common-Law Marriage Doctrine," published in the Cumberland Law Review.