Crabbe worked for several years as a musketry instructor, but in 1882 he helped organise the logistical operations for the British attack on
Alexandria. He was promoted to
captain the following year, on 24 November 1883. In 1884 he volunteered for the
Sudan campaign as part of the Guards
Camel Corps and took part in the battle of
Abu Klea. Promotion to
major followed on 15 June 1885. On 6 July 1898 he was promoted to
lieutenant-colonel and became commanding officer of the 3rd Battalion, the Grenadier Guards, and the following year he led the battalion to
South Africa following the outbreak of the
Second Boer War in October 1899. He was wounded at the
Battle of Belmont in November 1899 and
mentioned in despatches, but was back with his battalion in time for the
Battle of Magersfontein in December. In March 1900 his battalion took part in the march on
Bloemfontein and the pacification of the
Orange Free State. He escorted
Piet Cronjé into captivity, and commented in a letter home: "It is a curious idea taking one’s wife & family with one to the wars & must be inconvenient for many reasons but it is rather the fashion in these parts. Living in a river bed & being shot at every day seems an odd fancy for a lady." On 23 March he was badly wounded when a small foraging party, mainly of officers, which he was leading, including Colonel
Codrington of the
Coldstream Guards, was ambushed at Karee Siding; his adjutant was killed. This episode was generally regarded as "plucky" but widely reported round the world as an example of the "over-confidence and recklessness" (in the words of the
New York Tribune) of British officers. However Crabbe was back with his battalion by the end of April and as they marched north towards
Pretoria on 1 May Crabbe was observed and commented on by
Arthur Conan Doyle: "Here is another man worth noting. You could not help noting him if you tried. A burly, broad-shouldered man with full, square, black beard over his chest, his arm in a sling, his bearing a medieval knight-errant. It is Crabbe, of the Grenadier Guards." Crabbe led his battalion to
Pretoria and on to the border with
Portuguese East Africa at Koomati Poort but their hopes of returning to England with
Field Marshal Lord Roberts in November 1900 were dashed. Instead they were sent from
Transvaal to
Cape Colony to prevent
De Wet entering the
Cape. When the character of the war changed in early 1901 to that of blockhouses,
concentration camps, and mobile columns against Boer
guerillas, Crabbe became commander of a mobile column, not rejoining his battalion till March 1902. His mobile column had dangerous brushes with Fouche in May and with Kritzinger in July 1901, and led the forces which defeated and killed Van der Merwe in September and Hildebrand in November. Following the end of the war in June 1902, he was relieved of his command of the 3rd battalion and placed on
half-pay on 6 July 1902, with a
brevet promotion to
colonel from the same date. He returned to England on the
SS Carisbrook Castle in late July, landing at
Southampton the following month. For his services Crabbe was appointed a Companion of the
Order of the Bath (CB) in the April 1901 South Africa Honours list (the award was dated to 29 November 1900), and he received the actual decoration after his return, from King
Edward VII at
Buckingham Palace on 24 October 1902. Later the same year, Crabbe was appointed
Assistant Quartermaster General (AGMG) of the
1st Army Corps at
Aldershot, with the substantive rank of colonel from 2 November 1902. In May 1903 he became Chief Staff Officer of 4th Army Corps also at
Aldershot. He died suddenly of a heart attack soon after arriving for work on 8 March 1905, aged only 52. ==Family==