Born at Pettinghoe, near Newhaven, in Sussex, the son of Hugh Croft, who at the age of 19 married his first wife Maria, aged 16. His grandfather, Gilmore Croft, a successful medical practitioner in the city of London, left Hugh Croft a competence, most of which he dissipated 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 throughout his 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, where he served as House Surgeon. He acted as Surgeon to the Dreadnought Seamen's Hospital Ship from 1855-1860, and then returned to St Thomas's Hospital to become Demonstrator of Anatomy and Surgical Registrar. He was appointed successively Resident Assistant Surgeon (December, 1863), Assistant Surgeon (January 1st, 1871), and Surgeon (July 1st, 1871) when the new buildings of the hospital were opened on the Albert Embankment. In the Medical School he was Demonstrator of Anatomy, Lecturer on Practical Surgery, and Lecturer on Clinical Surgery. He resigned his appointments in July, 1891, and 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 a member of the Council of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1882 and resigned in 1890, after serving as Vice-President in 1889 and acting on the Court of Examiners from 1881-1886. Croft was one of the earlier hospital surgeons in London to adopt Listerian methods. His name was chiefly associated with the introduction of 'Croft's splints', which were plaster-of-Paris cases made with scrubbing flannel and shaped to the limb it was desired to immobilize. They were employed in place of the ordinary splints and the 'gum and chalk' bandages which had been used previously. They have been superseded in their turn by celluloid splints. Croft was a strong advocate for early excision of the joint in cases of hip disease. He married in 1864 Annie, daughter of Alexander Douglas Douglas, but had no children. He died on November 21st, 1905, and was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery. He appears in Jamyn Brookes's portrait group of the Council, 1884; there is also a good portrait of him in the *St Thomas's Hospital Reports*, and one as a young man in the Fellows' Album.