Frank Percy Crozier CB, CMG, DSO, croix de guerre,QSA

1879 Jan 8. Born Warwick Camp, Bermuda, son of Major Bernard Rauson Crozier (his father was a co-respondant in a 1874 divorce. His parents had married in Portumna in 1877) His father was an Army Officer

He was sent to Ireland for his early education. he was in the care of his aunt, his uncle had been in 12th Lancers, his grandfather had served in the 9th Foot in the crimea and was the resident Magistrate at Portumna in County Galway. Because of the troubles his grandfather was under the constant protection of the RIC. His Great great Uncle, Sam Hussey was a land agent and Crozier states, one of the most hated men in ireland, constantly being blown up or shot at.

1891 At a prep school, Brunswick House School, 29 & 30, Brunswick Road, Hove (Churchill was there till Apr 1888, I don't know when Crozier arrived). The preparatory school was on the corner of Lansdowne Road. The school was run in a very different manner by two sisters, Kate and Charlotte Thomson.

1893 - 1895 Educated at Wellington School.

1897 Served as Lieutenant in 4th Battalion, Middlesex Rifle Volunteers

1898 Sep 21 Left UK for Ceylon. Went to Ceylon to be a tea planter. Attracted by the Boer War, Crozier made his way to South Africa in 1900

1900 May 19 A corporal in Thornycroft's Mounted Infantry in the South African War. Obtained a commission as 2nd Lieutenant in the Manchester Regiment. His actions here included - Relief of Ladysmith, including action at Colenso; operations of 17th to 24th January, 1900, and action at Spion Kop; operations of 5th to 7th February and action at Vaal Kranz; operations on Tugela Heights (14th to 27th February). Operations in Natal, March to June, 1900, including action at Laing's Nek (6th to 9th June). Operations in Orange River Colony, May to 28th November, 1900, including actions at Wittebergen (1st to 29th July), and Caledon River (27th to 29th July). Operations in the Transvaal and Orange River Colony, 30th November to December, 1900. Operations in Cape Colony, December, 1900, to January, 1901. Queen's Medal with seven clasps.

1901 Jul 13 Promoted, Lieutenant, Manchester Regiment

1901 Jun 3 Employed with West African Frontier Force from 3rd June, 1901, to 17th September, 1905. West Africa (Northern Nigeria), 1903.—Kano-Sokoto Campaign. Medal with clasp. Sokoto-Burmi operations

1902:  'Issued a dishonoured cheque in payment of his board and lodging whilst at the School of Musketry, Hythe.

1904 Mar 26 Travels from UK to Nigeria

1905 Jul 10 Married in London to Ethel Mary Cobb

He later served in Zululand (1905–6).

1908 Mar 31. To half-pay on account of his poor health. Dishonoured a cheque in payment of his mess bill.  The O/C 2nd Manchesters contacted the GOC and requested that if Crozier was brought back from half pay steps might be taken to prevent his being posted to that Btn., as after his 'grave conduct' he had 'no wish to have serving under him an officer who brought discredit to the regiment'.  The O/C 2nd Manchesters gave details of another dishonoured cheque to the officers club at Aldershot and of having been contacted by tradesmen to whom money was due asking for Crozier's address.

1908:  Evidence of seven further dishonoured cheques.  Lt Crozier resigns his commission.

1908 Jun 17. Resigned commission in Manchester Regt

1908 Jun 17 Commissioned as Captain, 3rd Battalion, Loyal North Lancashire Regiment

1909 May 22. Resigned commission in North Lancs Regt. There are unsubstantiated reports that a bounced cheque was to blame.

1909 Jul 26.   Crozier declared bankrupt. First Bankruptcy hearing Apr 1909

1909 Aug 2 Went to Canada to farm. Travels Tourist Class, and is a "retired Army Captain"

1911 Sep 15 . Arrived back in UK from Canada, he was a "farmer" and travelled 3rd Class. Returned to Ireland and was in command of a contingent of UVF

When it was rumoured that the authorities planned to arrest the leaders of the UVF Craig ordered that the UVF Headquarters be moved from the Old Town Hall in Belfast to Craigavon House, where a special force guarded the UVF leaders twenty-four hours a day. This special force was made up of volunteers from the Belfast battalions North, South, East and West. It was commanded by Captain Percy Crozier, Commander of the West Belfast Battalion of the UVF.

Crozier was in Antrim on the outbreak of the First World War. As he pointed out in his autobiography: " I find, on arrival, that the Belfast brigade of the Ulster Division is complete. My West Belfast irregulars have become the 9th battalion Royal Irish Rifles. They are destined to carry the banner and high record of the regiment to the very summit of unselfish self-sacrifice and service in less than a year's time on the battlefields of France and Flanders...I find that I am promoted major, second-in-command, from the Royal Irish Fusiliers."

1914 Sep . Commissioned Temporary Captain, 9th Service Battalion (West Belfast), Royal Irish Rifles.

1914 Sep 4. Temporary Major, Second in Command 9th Service Battalion (West Belfast), Royal Irish Rifles.

The men were first trained at Ballykinlar. Crozier believed in instilling what he called "intellectual discipline" into his younger officers - many of whom were literally 'teenagers', fresh from the Officer Training Corps at Queens University or Trinity College. Crozier lectured his junior officers, for six months, five nights a week, whilst at Ballykinlar, on the process of 'hardening' that they must all undergo . The New Year period saw a rigorous stepping up of training. Crozier would later recall how in his battalion, bayonet fighting was coupled with propaganda about German atrocities and there was also plenty of martial music - as the band of each of the four battalions could be heard practicing their military marches on the fife, the pipe and the drum.

He seems to have acquired his batman David Starrett at the training camp, and Starrett served him as batman throughout the war

1916 Jan 8. Temporary Lieutenant-Colonel whilst Commanding Battalion

1916 Nov 20. Temporary Brigadier - General, General List. Commander, 119th (Welsh Bantam) Infantry Brigade. ‘I am afraid you will be disappointed with your new command,’ Crozier was told.  But he was undaunted set about getting the right battalion commanders.  One CO was immediately replaced after his battalion lost more than a hundred men in four days to trench feet. The battalion commanders Crozier eventually acquired were men like himself.  One had been a sergeant-major in 1914, another a Private, the third a 2nd lieutenant in the Ceylon Planters Corps.

1917 Jan 1. Gazetted DSO .Temp. Lt.-Col. (temp. Brig.-Gen.) Frank Percy Crozier, R. Ir. Rif.

1918 CMG

1919 Jun 3 Gazetted CB

1919 Apr 15. Relinquished appointment and temporary rank of Brigadier-General

1919 Apr 24. Lieut.-Colonel F. P. Crozier, temporary to Command 3rd Reserve Battalion, Welsh Regiment

1919 Jul 22. Ceased to Command 3rd Reserve Battalion, Welsh Regiment

1919 Jul 31. Relinquished Commission and granted honorary rank of Brigadier-General

1919 Unofficial. — Attached Lithuanian Delegation, Paris. General Major Lithuanian Forces. Britain did not send a military mission to any of the Baltic states (as this would imply recognition) but created a Baltic Mission. It had offices in all of them but was accredited to none of them. It was not officially a military mission although it performed many of the functions of one and was often referred to as one. Thus where we see the words ‘British Military Mission in Lithuania’ this was not the same as a ‘Military Mission to Lithuania’. The appointment by the Lithuanian mission to Paris, led by the Lithuanian Prime Minister Voldemaras, of Crozier (with Muirhead in support) as Inspector General with responsibility for organising and training the Lithuanian armed forces. Crozier had problems with discipline. There were mutinies amongst the men whose training he was organising, large numbers of his staff resigned. “With an abundance of redundant British officers, Crozier had failed to restrict his corps to a size the Lithuanians could afford, or to exclude officers ‘of the wrong type’.” Voldemaras, who had appointed Crozier was ousted as Prime Minister and there was resentment over the placing of foreigners in positions of influence (such as inspector General of the army). At the same time Crozier resisted British attempts to broker Lithuanian and Polish cooperation in pushing Bolshevik troops out of the country and fell out with Ward so that he was in effect at loggerheads with the British Government. He was shortly to be in disagreement with his Lithuanian employers as they entered into an arrangement with the Poles for joint operations against the Bolsheviks . So the training wasn’t going well and Crozier had created tension between himself and the British and Lithuanians. The threat posed by Germany was dwindling and, with Polish help, the Bolsheviks were about to be driven out. There seems to have been little point in Crozier any more. He resigned, it is difficult to know how much pressure he was under to do this, and went to Ireland to run the Auxiliary Division of the RIC. Some of his remaining officers accompanied him to Ireland and the Auxiliaries.

His period in Lithuania .

crozier lithuania

Foreign Office files at Kew indicate that the official policy towards Crozier and his team was that they were to be considered as officers of the Lithuanian Army and that they were private citizens. Hence Tallents could suggest, but certainly could not instruct Crozier. The two did, however, co-operate, at least initially and had some success in improving relations between the Lithuanians and Letts. Crozier certainly kept the FO informed during the setting up of his mission, but appears not to have communicated with them once he arrived in-country. On his return to UK he arranged for his diary of his time in Lithuania to be sent to the FO, but they promptly lost it! This was in the hope of gaining FO employment.

1919 Oct 12. Crozier left UK and went by train to Lithuania. With him were Anthony Muirhead , Edward Lawrence Mills , and Roland Vanstone Millard

1920 Aug 3. Joined ADRIC with service no 65

1920 Aug 11 Appointed to Command new ADRIC

1920 Oct :  Mrs Crozier called personally at the War Office (!) and stated that her husband had left her entirely destitute and that it would be necessary for her to go into the workhouse that night.  She wanted to know his whereabouts with a view to commencing civil proceedings.

Photo taken between 30 Oct (Vickers promoted) and 20 Nov (Crozier out of action after that)

1920 Nov 23. He had a serious car accident on his way to Dublin from investigating the problem in Galway with D Coy and then inspecting G Coy in Killaloe, and was in Curragh Hospital for a month. He then moved to a Rest Home in Dublin. Wood was in charge of the ADRIC during Crozier's absence. He was eventually awarded £250 of his initial claim for £1500 compensation.

1920 Dec 16. London Times reported "General Crozier, who was badly hurt some weeks ago, when his motor car came into collision with an obstruction placed across the road, is now approaching complete recovery. He is being nursed in the Curragh Hospital"

1920 Dec 25 . Left hospital

1920 Dec 29. Irish Times reported.

Brigadier General Crozier, Commanding Officer of the Auxiliary Division, Royal Irish Constabulary, who in November 1920, was injured in a vehicle accident, together with his escort, by being thrown from a Crossley Tender at Naas, on the night of November the 23rd 1920.  The accident was due to human error on the part of the driver, who was driving on a dark road at night. They were on their way to Dublin having left Killaloe, Co. Clare, earlier that day.  He is now approaching convalescence and will be shortly moved from the Military Hospital at the Curragh to a rest home in Dublin.   The seven remaining members of the party, including Lieutenant R.L. Arnold, Orderly Officer, all of whom were also admitted to hospital, have been discharged from hospital and are on sick leave.     Brigadier General Crozier sustained a concussion, a fractured arm, severe scalp wound and bruised side and arm. The remainder were not quite so badly injured.

1921 Jan 10 Crozier returns to duty and resumes command of ADRIC

1921 Jan 22. Sir Harmer Greenwood addresses ADRIC at Beggars Bush Barracks. Crozier was back on duty by now. Crozier had returned to take command again of ADRIC, and was straight in to the problems of King's murder trial and the looting at Trim

1921 Feb 19 "permitted to Resign" - note that the original entry was 27 Feb, but has been altered to 19 Feb. 19 Feb was the date of his letter to Tudor says that he proposed to resign at the end of his leave (presumably 27 Feb)

Before he resigned he had been boarded by an R.I.C.Medical Board for compensation assessment for the injuries he received in the accident, he was examined by Sir William Wheeler, who assessed the damage at £1,500. Crozier eventually received £250 of his claim was eventually for £1250. Since he was bankrupt at the time the money was used to help pay off his creditors.

1921 his first wife died and he married the same year Grace Catherine Roberts.

1930 Oct 4. Travels from UK to New York He is an "author", travels "cabin class"

1933 Jun 22 Libel Action

1937 Aug. Died Walton on Thames

crozier obituary