Jack Crawford

Crawford's headstone at Holy Trinity graveyard in the East End.Jack Crawford (22 March 1775 – 10 November 1831) was a sailor of the Royal Navy known as the "Hero of Camperdown."

Biography Crawford was born in Thornhill's Bank (now Pottery Bank) in the East End of Sunderland. He was a keelman until 1786 when, aged 11 or 12, he joined the crew of the Peggy at South Shields as an apprentice. He joined the Royal Navy in 1796, possibly as a result of being press-ganged but he may have volunteered, and served on HMS Venerable under Admiral Duncan the Royal Navy Commander-in-Chief of the North Seas.

At the Battle of Camperdown off the Dutch coast (11 October 1797), Venerable was Admiral Duncan's flagship. During the battle, part of the Venerable's mast was felled, including the admiral's flag. Lowering the Admiral's personal flag was a sign of surrender, and even an unintentional fall was unacceptable. Despite being under intense gunfire, Crawford climbed the mast and nailed the colours to the top.

After the victory procession in London he was formally presented to the King and was given a government pension of £30 a year, and later a silver medal from the people of Sunderland. However, Crawford fell on hard times and drunkenness, and had to sell his medal. He became the second victim of the cholera epidemic of 1831 and was buried in an unmarked "pauper's" grave.

Legacy Towards the end of the nineteenth century interest in the 'Hero of Camperdown' was renewed, in part through the success of the popular play "Jack Crawford the Hero of Camperdown" by Sunderland-based playwright James Roland MacLaren, which went on tour from 1879. This resulted in the erection of a headstone in Holy Trinity, Sunderland churchyard in 1888.