Person Page - 143

     Helen Usher Crease was born circa 1867.² She married David Crombie Greig, son of Peter Greig and Elizabeth Campbell Crombie, on 5 September 1895 in Strand, London.^1,3 Helen Usher Crease died on 4 April 1951.¹

     Francis Creasy was born on 20 December 1741 in Newbury, Essex County, Massachusetts.¹ He married Sarah Godfrey, daughter of Joseph Godfrey and Mary Sewall, on 12 October 1765 in Newburyport, Essex County, Massachusetts.¹

     Lt. Earl Raymond Crebbs married Mary Friend Darracott, daughter of Dr. Thomas P. Darracott and Mary Friend, on 13 June 1919 in Irvington, Multnomah County, Oregon.¹

     Joseph Crediford married Esther Littlefield.

     Lydia Crediford was born on 9 December 1733 in Wells, York County, Maine.² She was the daughter of Joseph Crediford and Esther Littlefield.¹ Lydia Crediford married Dummer Mitchell, son of John Mitchell and Lydia Sewall, after 6 January 1759 in Maine (being the date of the marriage intention.)¹ Lydia Crediford died in 1769 in Kennebunk, York County, Maine,² and is buried in Village Cemetery, Kennebunkport, York County, Maine.³

     Elizabeth Creighton married Samuel Bradstreet Robie, son of Thomas Robie and Mary Bradstreet, on 6 October 1806 in Halifax County, Nova Scotia. She was probably the Elizabeth Creighton whose death was recorded on the 4 January 1872 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, aged 86.

     John Loring Crichett was born on 29 August 1854 in Barrington, Strafford County, New Hampshire.¹ He married Emma Florence Sewall, daughter of Levi Woodbury Sewall and Mary Elizabeth Layne, on 23 February 1884 in Newmarket, Rockingham County, New Hampshire.² John Loring Crichett died on 8 October 1919 in Barrington, Strafford County, New Hampshire, at the age of 65¹ and is buried in Critchett Homestead Cemetery, Barrington, Strafford County, New Hampshire.³

     Sarah Crisp was the daughter of Richard Crisp.² Sarah Crisp married secondly Hon. John Leverett, son of Hudson Leverett and Sarah Peyton, in 1722?¹

     John Crispe was the son of Avis Denne.¹ Of Cliuecourt in the Isle of Thanet.¹

     Lt. Colonel Bertram Edward Crocker DSO was born circa 1866 in West Indies. The marriage of Lt. Colonel Bertram Edward Crocker DSO and Mary "Mollie" Troughton was registered in the quarter ending December 1898 in the Maidenhead registration district.² Lt. Colonel Bertram Edward Crocker DSO died on 28 February 1950 in White Oast, Wingham, Kent, the home of his daughter, Joyce Knocker.³

     Joyce Irene Delamain Crocker's birth was registered in the quarter ending June 1900 in the Maidenhead, Berkshire, registration district.² She was the daughter of Lt. Colonel Bertram Edward Crocker DSO and Mary "Mollie" Troughton.^1,3 Joyce Irene Delamain Crocker married Lt. Colonel Harold Sewell Knocker, son of John Cowper Knocker and May Livingstone Sewell, on 26 September 1936 in The Garrison Church, Portsmouth.¹ Joyce's death was registered in the quarter ending March 1968 in the Thanet, Kent, registration district.⁴

     Mary Crockett married William Henry Titcomb, son of William Titcomb and Salome Delano, on 4 January 1844 in Thomaston, Knox County, Maine.^1,2

     Maria Florence Eileen Croker-Walsh was born in 1894 in East Molesey, Surrey.² She married Reginald Seymour Allen, son of Col. Francis Seymour Allen and Florence Emma Mary Symonds, on 26 September 1917 in Kensington, London.¹

     Ada Alexandra Crombie was born on 16 November 1878 in Dacca, West Bengal, India.¹ She was the daughter of Lt. Colonel Alexander Crombie CB, MD and Zébée Minto Bell. Ada Alexandra Crombie was christened on 6 January 1879 at St. John's Church, Dacca, West Bengal, India.² She married Professor George Ernest Gask M.D., CMG, DSO, M.A., FRCS, son of Henry Gask and Elizabeth Styles, on 18 June 1913 in Camberley.^3,4 Ada Alexandra Crombie died on 29 September 1956 in 71 St. Mark's Road, Henley-on-Thames, at the age of 77. The funeral service took place at St. Mary the Virgin, Hambleden, Tuesday 2nd October, 1956.⁵ John Gask summarised a round the world voyage that his mother made and which was recorded as

This diary was written by my mother, Ada Alexandra Gask, nee Crombie, of a voyage round the world from August 1954 until March 1955.
My father had died almost four years earlier. My mother had her 76th birthday during the trip. She had sold their home at Hatchmans Hambleden and moved into a much smaller house at 54 St. Mark’s Road, Henley-on-Thames, where she died in the year after her return.
For most of the trip she was accompanied by her niece, Rosemary Gask, daughter of my father’s brother, Sydney, and later the wife of John Jones and mother of Christopher, for whom I am making this precis. Rosemary was also recently bereaved having devotedly looked after her father in his last years.
It argues much for their mutual affection and tolerance that the difference in age ( Rosemary was .... years old at the beginning of the trip) and their different experiences in life, did not prevent them from getting on together very well. The cabins and hotel rooms they shared were often small and cramped.
Their voyage was certainly undertaken in a spirit of adventure, but on my mother’s side it was undertaken to reunite her with three branches of her family whom she wanted to see before she died. As the three branches lived in Eastern Canada, Western Canada and Australia, she thought that they could be connected by a voyage round the world, from East to West.
The first family group she visited was that belonging to Margaret, “Ming”, nee Sewell, the daughter of my mother’s sister, Maude Sewell. Margaret had married, quite late in life, a skilled mechanic called Bob Silvey who had emigrated to Canada to be successful and to live a lifestyle which was impossible for them between the wars in England - still very snobby! My mother and Rosemary spent at least seven weeks in Eastern Canada.
The next object of her odyssey was to be united with her brother, Claude, who had been “sent to the colonies” in 1904 for some minor peccadillo. I can just remember him in uniform when he came over here to fight for King and Country in WW1.1 remember us raiding a cupboard to get at ajar of honey. I must have been about four years old at the time He showed his Scottish ancestry by his long lugubrious nose. My mother was shocked to find he had become an old and shrunken man, and, indeed, he died not long after her visit. Claude had had two wives and two daughters, one in Banff.
My mother and Rosemary first visited the children of his first marriage in Banff and then spent seven weeks with Claude in Vancouver.
The third collection of relatives my mother wished to visit were her Australian cousins - hundreds of them! To understand why she had Australian cousins one has to go back to quite early in the 19th century and to her grandfather, David Crombie, who was a farmer at Kilmining in Fife. He was a tenant farmer but I have inherited his Hepplewhite chairs which, myth says, were removed from parlour to kitchen when they became old fashioned!
David Crombie had four sons none of whom wanted to follow in his footsteps and take on the farm, exposed to all the winds on the Neuk of Fife. My mother’s father, Alexander, qualified M.D. at Edinburgh University, then went to India where he distinguished himself in the I.M.S. Two of his brothers, James and William, emigrated to Australia where they met and married two Cameron sisters and it was their offspring and intermarriages, nearly all to people of Scottish descent, that mad up the “Australian Cousins”.
Between the wars, my parents kept open house at Hambleden for the Australians: Crombies, McDowells, Warrens, Harts and Frasers, who used to visit “Home”. During WW11, many came over in uniform and spent their leave with my parents. Many did not return to Australia; they seemed to have chosen Bomber Command before being killed. But no-one since the original emigration in 1880 had travelled in the reverse direction until my mother did in 1955. She was received like royalty!
I think the highlight of their whole trip was visiting the sheep stations in the “outback” of Queensland. Conditions were still pretty primitive and it was the height of the Australian summer. The family still owned or managed the shearing pens. The place was steeped in Australian history - a short history as compared to English history but a history of which they were very proud.
In 1862 the two Crombie brothers formed a consortium with the two Camerons to make their fortune by sheep farming in Queensland. The women were left behind in Victoria. When the brothers reached New South Wales, they bought sheep and drove them 1,000 miles to N.W. Queensland where land was to be had for the asking. They took a year over their transhumance, avoiding hostile aborigines, but were rewarded at the end of it by buying a 40-mile frontage on the Sarcoo River (one of the many Australian rivers which never reach the sea). These stations, Greenhill, Longreach, Muttabura and Barcaldine, have now become towns. Their fortunes went up and down with the price of wool but their size was immense: up to lOOsquare miles with 90,000 sheep. At some time, these stations, 400 miles North West of Brisbane, were given up by the family. The stations visited by my mother and Rosemary were about 120-150 miles west of Brisbane over the Darling Downs and close to Dalby.

     Adam Crombie was born on 2 May 1872 (if this date is correct then the child is illegitimate; 2 May 1875 would be a practical date.)¹ He was the son of William Crombie and Margaret Anne Cameron.¹ Adam Crombie died on 8 May 1872 (the account in The Crombies and Camerons says he died at birth and was buried in the Home Creek garden.)^1,2

     Adrian Alexander Minto Crombie was born on 25 July 1882 in Darjeeling, India.^1,2 He was the son of Lt. Colonel Alexander Crombie CB, MD and Zébée Minto Bell.¹ Adrian Alexander Minto Crombie died on 1 January 1883 in Dacca, India,^1,3 and is buried in Dacca Cemetery.

     Lt. Colonel Alexander Crombie CB, MD was born on 12 December 1845 in Crail, Fife, Scotland. He was the son of David Guillan Crombie and Janet Campbell (Jessie) Webster.¹ Lt. Colonel Alexander Crombie CB, MD was christened on 30 December 1845 at Crail, Fife.² He graduated in 1867 from Edinburgh M.B; M.D. 1870, admitted to The Royal College of Surgeons. The Fife Herald dated 9 March 1871 reported that Dr. Alex. Crombie of Kilwinning [sic.], had the rare honour of attaining the highest number of marks at the recent competative examination for Her Majesty's British Medical Service, held at the London University, on the 20th ult. He entered military service as an Assistant Surgeon in the Bengal Medical Service. on 30 March 1872. He married Zébée Minto Bell, daughter of Dr. William Bell and Zébée Stewart Gordon, on 13 March 1875 in Holy Trinty Church, Rangoon, Bengal, India, the service was conducted by the Revd. Wellbore McCarthy.^3,4 In 1885 he is recorded in the Army List as senior surgeon in charge of the jail, lunatic asylum, medical school and civil hospital in Dacca. Lt. Colonel Alexander Crombie CB, MD retired on 7 April 1898 as a Brigade Surgeon with the rank of Lt. Colonel.
He and Zébée Minto Bell appear on the census of 1 March 1901 at 35 & 34 York Place, Marylebone, London, as boarders.⁵ In a paper dated on 9 December 1901 read before the Medical Society of London, entitled The Measure of Physical Fitness for Life in the Tropics Alexander Crombie is described as Lt. Col I.M.S. (retired); Member of the Medical Board at the India Office; Lecturer on Tropical Diseases, Middlesex Hospital. London: 1902. In 1906 Crombie was living in 3A Bickenhall Mansions, Gloucester Place, London. He died on 29 September 1906 in London at the age of 60.⁶ His ashes are interred in niche 90 in the Columbarium in Golder's Green Crematorium, London, (by an indenture dated 30th November 1906.)

     Alexander John Crombie was born on 3 April 1832 in Kilminning, Fife.¹ He was the son of David Guillan Crombie and Janet Campbell (Jessie) Webster. Alexander John Crombie was christened on 4 May 1832 at Crail, Fife.² He died on 7 August 1836 at the age of 4.³

     Professor Alistair Cameron Crombie PhD. was born on 4 November 1915 in Brisbane, Australia. He was the son of William David Crombie and Janet Wilmina (Mina) Macdonald. Professor Alistair Cameron Crombie PhD. married Nancy Hay in 1943 in Ramsgill, Yorkshire, (possibly called Mary.) Professor Alistair Cameron Crombie PhD. died on 9 February 1996 in Orchard Lea, Boars Hill, Oxfordshire, at the age of 80 at his home, from a brain tumour and is buried on 19 February 1996 in Ramsgill Church, Yorkshire.

     Andrew Charles Crombie was born on 21 July 1923 in Beryl, Longreach.¹ He was the son of James Crombie and Amy Gladys Kirk Flower. On 1940? He entered military service as a Member A.I.F. Second World War. Andrew Charles Crombie died on 7 August 1954 in Brisbane at the age of 31 died unmarried.¹

     Archibald Crombie was born on 29 December 1817 in Fife.¹ He was the son of John Crombie and Euphemia Wallace.¹ Archibald Crombie was christened on 14 January 1818 at Kilconquhar, Fife.¹ He married Catherine McLachlan on 9 September 1852 in Govan, Lanarkshire.^2,3 Archibald Crombie died on 23 November 1882 in Glasgow at the age of 64^2,4 and is buried in Glasgow Necropolis, Glasgow.² On 7 March 1883

     Archibald Reid Crombie was born in 1871 in Melbourne, Victoria.² He was the son of Edward Ellice Crombie and Jessie Watson.¹ Archibald Reid Crombie died on 6 August 1885 in London³ and is buried in Hampstead Cemetery, Hampstead, London.⁴

     Beatrice Mary Crombie was born on 12 July 1915 in Bengal, India.² She was christened on 29 October 1915 at Bannu, Bengal, India.² She was the daughter of Colonel David Campbell Crombie CBE and Thérèse Henrietta Pankhurst.¹

     Squadron Leader Charles Arbuthnot Crombie D.S.O., D.F.C. was born on 16 April 1914 in Brisbane, Queensland.¹ He was the son of David William Alexander Crombie and Phoebe Janet Arbuthnot. Squadron Leader Charles Arbuthnot Crombie D.S.O., D.F.C. married Elizabeth "Betty" Deane Butcher on 20 September 1940 in Sydney, New South Wales.² On 17 February 1943 as a Pilot Officer he was awarded the DSO for attacking a superior force of four Japanese aircraft and with his RAF observer destroying two of them before they were compelled to abandon their burning machine. This took place in India. Later in the same year he was given an immediate award of the DFC.³ Squadron Leader Charles Arbuthnot Crombie D.S.O., D.F.C. died on 26 August 1945 in Williamtown, Newcastle, Australia, at the age of 31 whilst on a routine test flight, ten days after the war was over⁴ and is buried in Plot K. Row C. Grave 3. Newcastle (Sandgate) War Cemetery.⁵

     Claudia Crombie was born on 10 November 1916 in Swift Current, Swift Current Census Division, Saskatchewan.² She was the daughter of William Claude David Crombie and Edith Mary Lawrence.¹ Claudia Crombie died on 12 November 1990 in Vancouver, Greater Vancouver Regional District, British Columbia, at the age of 74.²

     Constance Christian "Gipsy" Crombie was born on 11 December 1882 or 14 December 1882 in Madras, India, "Dec 11th at Madras the wife of DAJ Crombie of a daughter."^2,3 She was the daughter of David Alexander John Crombie and Mary Forrester Fortune. Constance Christian "Gipsy" Crombie was baptised on 14 February 1883 at Madras.³ She appeared in the 1891 census at 23 Stafford Street, Edinburgh.¹ She died on 28 January 1915 in Boscombe, Hampshire, her address then being Corolanty, Spa Road, Boscombe.⁴

     David Crombie was born on 15 June 1830 in Kilminning, Fife.^1,2 He was the son of David Guillan Crombie and Janet Campbell (Jessie) Webster. David Crombie was christened on 7 July 1830 at Crail, Fife.² He died on 27 February 1841 in Crail, Fife, at the age of 10^1,3 and was buried on 3 March 1841.⁴

     David Crombie was born on 10 January 1871.² He was the son of James Crombie and Isabella Harriett Cameron.¹ David Crombie died on 28 January 1871 living only 18 days.¹