Career
Saxifraga crawfordii is named after him. He served as President of the Scottish Microscopical Society. He was an avid collector of plant species, especially Bryophytes and Spermatophytes, notably in Perthshire and Orkney but representing almost all areas of the United Kingdom.
He attended Edinburgh Academy 1863-1868 and then trained as a stockbroker.
He retired in 1896 and began to focus fully on his botanical interests. In 1897 he became a Fellow of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh and demonstrated Botany at an academic level at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.
In 1898 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were Ramsay Heatley Traquair, Sir Isaac Bayley Balfour, James Geikie and John Chiene.
In his final years he lived at 19 Royal Terrace, an impressive Georgian townhouse designed by William Henry Playfair on Calton Hill.
He died on 9 February 1908.