177303 Lieutenant William Patrick Cullen "Pat" Crawford was born on August 16, 1921.

He was commissioned, Royal Tank Regiment on March 8, 1941, and served with the 2nd Royal Gloucestershire Hussars.

On May 18, 1943 he transferred to the Parachute Regiment and after he successfully qualified as a parachutist at Ramat David in Palestine on course No. 44 from 26 May to 08 July 1943 he was assigned to Headquarters Company as the Intelligence Officer of the 11th Parachute Battalion.

Shortly after the battalion's return from Palestine to the UK in January 1944, the unit was billeted across various locations around Leicester. This was an undesirable situation, and so the battalion as a whole was stationed at Welby Lane Camp in Melton Mowbray on 8 May 1944. The Intelligence Section comprised: Lieutenant Pat Crawford; Sergeant Michael Elliott, MM Corporal [sergeant at Arnhem] “Rocky” Knight; Lance Corporal Charles ‘Jeb’ Prout; Privates John Latz; Harry Liston (the Intelligence Officers batman); Jim Bourne; Gustav Sander; and John Bosley.

Pat emplaned with the main body of the Battalion at RAF Saltby on the 18th September 1944, bound for Arnhem, and jumped on drop zone ‘Y’ at Ginkel Heath.

Once he arrived at the rendezvous point, he began interrogating the captured Germans together with Private Gus Sanders. It was a large group of tough looking German soldiers dressed in camouflaged smocks. There they realized that they were Waffen-SS men which came as a shock as they were not supposed to be in the area. After a week of intense fighting Pat was taken prisoner of war and sent to Oflag 79 in Brunswick, Lower Saxony, Germany. There he got his prisoners number 91203.

After his liberation from captivity and return to the UK, he transferred to The Royal Irish Fusiliers.