Stephen Crabtree's father Ronald Hartley Crabtree was a wool merchant in Wyke, Bradford, where he was born on 27 January 1944. His mother was Annie Victoria née Holmes. He was educated at Denstone College and Selwyn College, Cambridge, from which he went to the Middlesex Hospital for his clinical studies. After qualifying, he did junior posts at the Middlesex, Addenbrooke's and Orpington, before returning to complete his orthopaedic training at the Middlesex under Philip Newman and Rodney (later Sir Rodney) Sweetnam, and at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital. He was appointed consultant to Greenwich District Hospital, moving to the new Queen Elizabeth Hospital in 2001. He organised the south east orthopaedic training circuit for some years and took a keen interest in the training of the junior staff. He was Chairman of the Greenwich and Bexley division of the BMA from 1987 to 1988. He was a quiet, unassuming, conscientious man and a talented musician and organist. He married Jane Bech Hansen in 1969. They had two children, Anna and Christopher. He died from cancer of the colon on 7 September 2001.