Background
He was born on 20 January 1920 into an ecclesiastical family (his father was the Rev South B Crooks, Rector of Killough, Company Down and then Street Stephen’s, Belfast) and educated at Down High School and Trinity College, Dublin.
He was born on 20 January 1920 into an ecclesiastical family (his father was the Rev South B Crooks, Rector of Killough, Company Down and then Street Stephen’s, Belfast) and educated at Down High School and Trinity College, Dublin.
Trinity College.
He was ordained in 1944 and became Dean"s Vicar and then Vicar Choral at Street Anne’s Cathedral, Belfast, until 1949, when he was appointed Rector of Street John's, Orangefield. In 1970 he became Dean of Belfast, a post he held for 15 years. While at the Cathedral he launched the annual Christmas "sit out" to raise funds for local charities for which he became known as the Black Santa.
He was made a Chaplain of the Venerable Order of Street John of Jerusalem in the Queen"s Birthday Honours in February 1976., and admitted Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in 1981. He died in 1986 aged 66 in a car crash on the Saintfield Road near Carryduff on his way to a meeting at Belfast Cathedral. In December 2014 an Ulster History Circle blue plaque was unveiled in his memory at Street Anne"s Cathedral, Belfast.