Francis Albert Eley Crew, 1886-1973

Abstract

Third in a sibship of five, and the only survivor beyond the neonatal period, Francis Albert Eley Crew was born on 2 March 1886 in Staffordshire at Tipton, now part of the Birmingham conurbation. His father Thomas Crew, who later prospered in business, was at that time a grocer in a small way. Both his parents were devout nonconformists. At 3 1/2 years of age his formal education started at the local Board School from which he proceeded by scholarship first to the King Edward VI grammar school at Five Ways in Birmingham at the age of 10, then to the King Edward VI High School at Edgbaston, where, among other Fellows of the Society, the late Bishop Barnes was at one time a pupil. An inveterate pet-lover, he began breeding Brahma bantams while still a schoolboy, and won prizes at all the major poultry shows. Though as yet with no access to information about the science of animal breeding, he acquired at an early age a flair for animal husbandry to prove of much value when he became Director of an Institute for Genetical Research.