Family Crean was born in Morrison's Hotel, which stood on the corner of
Dawson Street and
Nassau Street in
Dublin. Some accounts give his place of birth as No. 21 Northbrook Road, the Crean family home at the time he won the VC in 1901. He was the fifth child of Michael Theobald Crean, a
barrister originally from
Fethard in
County Tipperary who worked for the
Irish Land Commission, and his wife Emma. His maternal grandparents, John and Maryanne Dunn, were the owners of the hotel where he was born. The Dunns' residence was Esker House, Upper Rathmines Road, and Crean's three older sisters - Mary, Emma and Eleanor – were all born there. Both his older and younger brothers, John and
Frank Crean, were also born at Morrison's Hotel. A third brother, Richard, died as an infant, and a fourth sister, Alice Mary, was born in 1879 in the Crean family home at No. 7 Upper Pembroke Street. Alice would later marry
Alexander Findlater Todd, one of Crean's rugby teammates on the 1896 British Isles tour of South Africa. John followed in his father's footsteps becoming a barrister in the Land Commission and one of his sons was Fr C. P. Crean
MBE, Army chaplain with
I Corps during WW2 and Head Chaplain of the
Irish Defense Forces from 1956 to 1962. Frank studied engineering, emigrating to
Canada where he undertook a survey of
Saskatchewan in 1908–09 on behalf of the
Canadian Government. This was the famous 'Frank Crean Expeditions to the New North-West' and Crean Lake in
Prince Albert National Park was named in his honour. Crean was named after his uncle Dr. Thomas Joseph Crean, a successful practitioner and civil medical officer in the town of
Clonmel, County Tipperary. Also from Clonmel was Lieutenant Colonel Dr. John Joseph Crean, a cousin and close friend to his father who had been with
General Graham's Suakin Expedition in
Sudan following the fall of
Khartoum in 1885. John was a
Senior Medical Officer throughout England and the
colonies, also holding such positions as Principal Civil Medical Officer (PCMO) of the
Straits Settlements in 1886. John was Head of the
Army Medical Department in Dublin while Crean was in school at Clongowes. Crean ultimately followed in the footsteps of these two men, becoming both a successful practitioner and an esteemed officer of the Royal Army Medical Corps. Crean's father Michael Theobald Crean was allegedly knighted by
Pope Pius IX in the 1860s when he was part of a Clonmel contingent of The Irish Brigade in Italy to defend the papacy from
Garibaldi. Michael's family had first come to Tipperary after his great grandfather John Crean had fought in the
Battle of Aughrim as retinue to Sir John Everard of Fethard, who was killed in battle and John Crean inherited his lands there. The Crean family was originally from
Sligo, where they were the most powerful merchant family in the 1600s, trading overseas in leather, wool and wine. This leather and wool legacy was continued in Clonmel at Crean's tannery by Richard Crean in the industrial revolution in the 1790s until the name Crean died out here entirely by the 1930s and their legacy married into the Mulcahy family of the
Ardfinnan Woollen Mills. Before this, the tannery provided economic support to the wider Crean family, including Michael Theobald Crean in early life.
Education Crean and his brothers all initially attended
Belvedere College and
Catholic University School before becoming boarders at
Clongowes Wood College. Thomas attended Clongowes from 1889 until 1891. As a student he was noted as a fine athlete, excelling not only at rugby but also at both the quarter and half-mile running events. He was also a very fine swimmer, and it was as a swimmer that he first demonstrated his bravery. On 11 September 1891, while swimming with fellow students near
Blackrock, Dublin, he helped rescue a 21-year-old art student, William Ahern. Crean noticed Ahern was in trouble and together with a young
solicitor named Leachman from
Dundrum, he managed to bring him ashore. For his bravery he was awarded a medal by the
Royal Humane Society. In October 1891 Crean commenced his medical studies at the
Royal College of Surgeons and, after graduating as a doctor in 1896, he became a
Licentiate of both the Royal College of Surgeons and the
Royal College of Physicians. ==Rugby career==