Boer War Victoria Cross Recipient. Born in Dublin, Ireland, he was educated at Belvedere College and at Clongowes Wood College in Kildare. In 1891, the year he left school, he saved an art student named William Hearn from drowning, and was awarded the Testimonial of the Royal Humane Society. Crean went on to study medicine at the Royal College of Surgeons, qualifying in 1896. While a student, he joined the Wanderers Rugby Club and was capped nine times for Ireland, being in 1894 a member of the first Irish side to win the Triple Crown (i.e., defeating England, Scotland and Wales.) In 1896, he toured South Africa with the British Lions, and remained there after the tour had finished to work at Johannesburg Hospital. Three years later, when the Boer War broke out, he enlisted as a trooper in the Imperial Light Horse. He took part at the Reliefs of Mafeking and Ladysmith, was wounded at the Battle of Elandslaagte, and was awarded his medal for his bravery on the December 18, 1901 at the Battle of Tygerskloof. The citation reads "This officer continued to attend to the wounded in the firing line at a distance of only 150 yards range, after he himself had been wounded, and desisted only when he was hit a second time and, as it was first thought, mortally wounded." After the Boer War, Crean served in the Royal Army Military Corps, then returned to private practice. In 1914, on the outbreak of the First World War, he rejoined the Royal Army Medical Corps as a Surgeon Captain, was wounded several times, twice mentioned in dispatches and awarded the Distinguished Service Order. In 1916, he was promoted to the rank of Major and commanded a field ambulance with the British Expeditionary Force in France. After the Armistice, he returned to his Harley Street practice, but his physical health had been ruined; this in turn caused his business to fail, and he was declared bankrupt, dying of diabetes at the age of 49, although his grave gives his age as 48.