Background
He was born in Porto, Portugal, the son of John Croft, merchant, and Henrietta Maria, daughter of James Tunstall. In 1795, at his father"s request, Jack (his nickname), joined the family Portuguese house.
He was born in Porto, Portugal, the son of John Croft, merchant, and Henrietta Maria, daughter of James Tunstall. In 1795, at his father"s request, Jack (his nickname), joined the family Portuguese house.
He was educated in a British school run by an Anglican clergyman Doctor Bell, who taught his pupils fluency in six languages.
Five years later he sailed to London to become a scientist His first work was as an assistant to Humphry Davy, the inventor of the miners" safety lamp. In 1803 he went to assist the botanist Joseph Banks.
Jack was later admitted to the Royal Society, with recommendations by Davy and Banks and Peter Mark Roget.
In 1814 he was also appointed an Associate of The Royal Academy of Science in Lisbon. In 1810 in the midst of the Peninsular Wars he met Charles Stuart, the British Minister to Portugal, who invited him to undertake a six-month espionage operation along the entire north coast of Spain from Corunna to the French border.
His task was to organise a network of agents to report details of French troop movements to Stuart who, in turn, would sort them and pass them to Wellington. The following year Charles Stuart appointed Jack as the joint leader of the British Government Distribution Fund whose challenge was to provide aid to desolate Portuguese villagers in the war-torn villages.
He quickly took charge of the operation and with his team of 16 volunteers provided blankets, clothing, food, medicines, livestock, et cetera to 77,000 families.
Royal Society.