Researching Robert Crawford

Educated at Culford School and Pembroke College, Oxford (MA, Modern History, 1967), he joined the Imperial War Museum as a Research Assistant in 1968 and progressed to Head of Research and Information, Keeper of the Department of Photographs, and Assistant Director. Then in 1982 he became Deputy Director-General before becoming Director-General in 1995, which he served as until his retirement in October 2008. He was Chairman of the National Museum Directors' Conference from 2001 to 2006. He was also the deputy chairman of the Museums Documentation Association from 1998 to 2006 and a member of the National Historic Ships Committee until 2006.

Crawford is Chairman of the Greenwich Foundation for the Old Royal Naval College and a trustee of the Horniman Museum and Gardens, Royal Logistic Corps Museum Trust, National Maritime Museum, National Museums Liverpool, National Museum of the Royal Navy and Chatham Historic Dockyard. He is a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Glovers and was made a Freeman of the City of London in 1998.

Crawford was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2002 for services to museums and a Knight Bachelor in the 2007 New Year Honours.

During World War II, Crawford flew for the Air Transport Command of the U.S. Army Air Forces. In 1947, Crawford joined the University of Miami's music faculty. He remained there for ten years, until he left to focus on composing.

Crawford was the son of William Crawford, M.P. for London 1833–41, and his wife Dorothy Elizabeth Rees. He lived in Bombay for several years, where he was a partner in the firm of Remington & Co. He then headed the firm of Crawford, Colvin, and Co., East India Merchants of London. (See the Colvin family for more on these connections.) He was chairman of the East Indian and the Mexican Railway Companies. In 1869, he became a Governor of the Bank of England, having earlier served as its Deputy Governor Black Friday (1869) occurred during Crawford's tenure as Governor. He was also a Commissioner of Lieutenancy for London, and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.

Crawford stood for parliament at Harwich in 1851, where he was elected Member of Parliament when the sitting member was unseated on petition, but was himself displaced on petition because it was alleged that the poll had closed three minutes before the legal hour. In 1852 he was proposed for the City of London, but declined to become a candidate although 3765 votes had been cast for him. At the 1857 general election Crawford was elected MP for the City of London. He held the seat until 1874.

Crawford married Margaret Urquhart Cruikshank, daughter of the Rev. John Cruickshank, of Turriff, Scotland in 1836. His sister Jane married Henry Ray Freshfield, of the family of lawyers; as Jane Freshfield she wrote travelogues of mountaineering in the Swiss Alps.

Crawford died at the age of 76 in 1889.

The caricature hangs on the fifth floor of Norman Shaw North, a building which houses many MPs. The caricature is signed by Robert Wigram Crawford himself.

Crawford was born in Port Glasgow, the son of Andrew Crawford. After receiving his education at Greenock, he came to Canada in 1849. He initially farmed at the Island of Montreal, but would later gain employment with the Hudson's Bay Company as a clerk in 1854. He earned a commission in 1867 as Chief Trader at Lindsay, Ontario, then worked as Chief Trader or Factor at Nipigon, Ontario, Red Rock, Ontario and Fort Chimo until 1877 when he retired. He moved to Brockville, Ontario where he lived until 1882, when he moved west to Indian Head, North West Territories. At Indian Head he operated a general store, Crawford & Robinson. He married Elizabeth Miles, the daughter of Robert Seaborn Miles, a fellow Hudson's Bay Company employee, in August 1863. He resided at Indian Head where he operated his store and was also the postmaster. During the 1885 North-West Rebellion, he was Paymaster to the Commissariat and Transport Service.

He was elected in 1886 to the Council of the North West Territories, trigged by the resignation of Thomas Wesley Jackson. Crawford retired at the next election, in 1888.

Crawford was also the senior elder of the First Ballymena Presbyterian Church, and ran its Sunday school for more than fifty years.