Career
See Harpur Baronets)
Sir Vauncey served as High Sheriff of Derbyshire in 1900 but apart from this position he played no part in public life. He was seen as something of an altruistic monocrat, mixing great thoughtfulness and generosity towards his tenants and employees at his two seats - Calke Abbey in Derbyshire and Warslow-Longnor in Staffordshire - with a disarming degree of aloofness and arbitrary behaviour towards his own family. "The Misses Crewe", he was noted to say, "do not marry", and when in due course, they did, he was very displeased.
She never returned to Calke during his lifetime.
After abdicating his social responsibilities Sir Vauncey concentrated on building up his enormous collection of stuffed birds, bird"s eggs and Lepidoptera. His collection included birds shot by himself and also rare or abnormally coloured specimens bought from dealers and taxidermists.
By the time of Sir Vauncey"s death, the taxidermy collection numbered several thousand cases. Although some of this was subsequently sold to meet heavy death duties, much remained at Calke, only coming to light sixty years later.
He looked upon Calke Abbey as something of a bird sanctuary (or perhaps, in light of his passion for shooting and taxidermy, a kind of game reserve).
A possible explanation for this intense dislike of the modern world is that Sir Vauncey had been privately educated at Calke in his youth, and did not attend any public school or university. Accordingly, he did not possess anything in the way of an open mind, with isolation on the estate merely compounding his antiquated views and opinions. However, there may also be a hereditary element in his isolationism as several of his forebears, especially Henry the 7th Baronet, who has been called "the isolated baronet" were also noted for their unsociable natures.
Unfortunately Richard was always of delicate health and he died of cancer aged 40 in 1921, before his father.
There were no further surviving heirs of the 1st baronet in the male line and, on the death of Sir Vauncey Harpur Crewe in 1924, the baronetcy became extinct. The estate passed to the descendants of Sir Vauncey"s youngest daughter Frances, and in 1985 to the National Trust.