Ferdie Crawford was educated at Clifton College, where he played in the rugby first XV, before going up to Trinity College, Cambridge. After University, he served in the Indian Civil Service from 1914-30. A very competent mountaineer, Crawford was experienced on peaks in England, Wales, and Scotland, as well as in the Rockies, Alps, and Himalayas, where he had participated in a climb on the world’s third highest mountain, Kanchenjunga. In 1922 he was part of Charles Granville Bruce’s expedition that came close to reaching the summit of Mount Everest. Crawford went on a second Everest expedition as a member of Hugh Ruttledge’s team in 1933.