Artist in oil, acrylic, watercolour, chalk and collage, and teacher, born in Horley, Surrey. He was at Croydon School of Art, 1941–5; did National Service in coal mines, 1945–8; then was at Royal College of Art, 1948–51, under Ruskin Spear, John Minton and Carel Weight. Taught full-time at Derby and Manchester Colleges of Art and Portsmouth Polytechnic, 1951–87. Was exchange professor, Eastern Illinois University, 1975; gained an Arts Council bursary, 1976; founder-member and director of Art Space, Portsmouth, from 1980; and for two months in 1984 was resident artist for city of Düsseldorf. Was a member of International Association of Artists. Crabbe’s work “passed through three main periods, in all of which colour played a major role: 1943–65 figuration; 1965–87 Geometric Abstraction; from 1987 returned to figuration.