Educated at St Bartholomew's Hospital, where he was Clinical Assistant in the Orthopaedic Department. He was also Clinical Assistant at the Throat Hospital, Golden Square, and during the Great War (1914-1918) was Resident Medical Officer of the New Zealand Military Hospital at Walton-on-Thames. He practised for many years at Oatlands, Weybridge, Surrey, and not long before his death was in partnership with his brother, Emilio F Crabtree, MRCS, at Worthing, where their joint address was Ashurst Lodge. About a month before his death the brothers bought the practice of T W H Downes, MRCS, at Broad Street, Ludlow. He was found dead on New Year's Day, 1925, having committed suicide.