castle-on-Tyne (Arch. Ael. ser. 1. xvi. 249–267). In 1880 he published a volume on ‘Old French Plate,’ which stirred a keen interest in Europe and America (2nd edit. 1893). For the Science and Art Department at South Kensington he prepared in 1881 a handbook dealing with college and corporation plate.
Cripps's expert authority was universally recognised. In October 1880, associated with Sir Philip Cunliffe Owen, he examined by the request of the Russian government the magnificent imperial collection of plate in Russia, and in 1881 he was similarly employed in Sweden and Denmark and at Berlin. In 1880 he was a member of the English sub-commission connected with the Exhibition of Gold and Silver Work at Amsterdam (Athenæum, 28 Feb. 1880, p. 289). Through his efforts valuable replicas of famous objects of artistic workmanship were obtained for the national collections at South Kensington and elsewhere.
Cripps interested himself in the archæology of his native town, and unearthed about the site of the forum of Roman Cirencester remains of the basilica and other principal buildings. His discoveries were communicated to the Society of Antiquaries in two papers, ‘Roman basilica of Corinium at Cirencester’ (Proc. Soc. Ant. new ser. xvii. 201–8), and ‘Roman Altar and other Sculptured Stones found at Cirencester in April 1899’ (ib. xviii. 177–184). He served many years in the royal North Gloucester militia, retiring with the rank of major; he completed in 1875 a history of the regiment which had been begun by Captain Sir J. Maxwell Steele-Graves. He was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in June 1880, and became local secretary for Gloucestershire, was made a C.B. in 1889, and in 1894 received the honorary freedom of the Goldsmiths' Company. Deputy-lieutenant of the county of Gloucester, and J.P. for the counties of Gloucester and Kent, he took a very active share in all local, especially educational, affairs. He keenly interested himself in the local welfare of the conservative cause.
Cripps died at his residence, Cripps Mead, Cirencester, on 26 Oct. 1903, and was buried at Cirencester cemetery. He was twice married: (1) on 31 May 1870 to Maria Harriet Arabella (d. 1881), second daughter of John Robert Daniel-Tyssen; (2) on 2 Dec. 1884 to Helena Augusta Wilhelmine, Countess Bismarck, daughter of Count Bismarck, of Schierstein, Prussia, a relative of the German chancellor. He had no issue.
Cripps also wrote, among many other papers and articles: 1. ‘Notes on Ancient Plate of the Merchant Taylors' Company’ (privately printed), 1877. 2. ‘English and Foreign Silverwork’ (Journ. of Soc. of Arts, 11 May 1883). 3. ‘Report on the Plate at Welbeck Abbey,’ 1883. 4. ‘Church Plate and how to describe it’ (Trans. Bristol and Glouc. Arch. Society, 27 Apr. 1893).
[Proc. Soc. Ant., ser. 2, xx. 110; Archæologia Aeliana, ser. 2, xxv. 188–191; Wilts. and Gloucestershire Standard, 31 Oct. 1903; Burke's Peerage, s.v. Amherst; private information.]
CROCKER, HENRY RADCLIFFE (1845–1909), dermatologist. [See Radcliffe-Crocker, Henry.]
CROFT, JOHN (1833–1905), surgeon, born on 4 Aug. 1833 at Pettinghoe near Newhaven, in Sussex, was son of Hugh Croft, who at the age of nineteen married his first wife Maria, aged sixteen. His grandfather, Gilmore Croft, a successful medical practitioner in the City of London, left Hugh Croft a competence, much of which was spent in farming. Hugh's first wife died in 1842, and marrying again he moved to Lower Clapton. John Croft was educated at the Hackney Church of England school, and through life held earnest religious views. He served a short apprenticeship with Thomas Evans of Burwash in Sussex, and entered St. Thomas's Hospital in 1850. Admitted M.R.C.S., and a licentiate of the Society of Apothecaries in 1854, he served as house surgeon at St. Thomas's Hospital. After spending five years (1855–60) as surgeon to the Dreadnought seamen's hospital ship, he returned to St. Thomas's to become demonstrator of anatomy and surgical registrar. He was successively resident assistant surgeon (Dec. 1863), assistant surgeon (1 Jan. 1871), and surgeon (1 July 1871), when the new buildings of the hospital were opened on the Albert Embankment. In the medical school he was in succession demonstrator of anatomy, lecturer on practical surgery, and lecturer on clinical surgery. He resigned his appointments in July 1891, when he was elected consulting surgeon. He was also surgeon to the Surrey dispensary; to the National Truss Society; to the Magdalen Hospital at Streatham, and to the National Provident Assurance Society. He was elected F.R.C.S. in 1859; was a member of the council (1882–90); vice-president in 1889, and a member of the court of examiners (1881–6).
Croft was one of the earlier hospital
