Norman Lloyd Crabtree was an ENT surgeon in Birmingham. He was born on 2 June 1916 in Birmingham, the only child of Herbert Crabtree, a clergyman and past president of the Unitarian Assembly, and Cissie Mabel née Taylor. He was educated at Alleyn’s School and then, following the advice of Sir Cecil Wakeley to take up medicine, went to King’s College Medical School on an entrance scholarship. During the second world war he was a Major in the RAMC, serving in India from 1942 to 1945 with the 17th General Hospital and the British Military Hospital, New Delhi. He was a house surgeon and then a registrar in ENT at King’s College Hospital, and then a registrar at Gray’s Inn Road. During his training he was influenced by Sir Victor Negus, Sir Terence Cawthorne and W I Daggett. He was appointed as a consultant at United Birmingham Hospitals. He was honorary treasurer of the Midland Institute of Otology and of the British Academic Conference in Otolaryngology, and President of the section of otology of the Royal Society of Medicine. He was co-founder and President of the British Association of Otolaryngology. He married a Miss Airey in 1939 and they had two daughters and one son. He enjoyed yacht cruising and cinematography.