Edward O'Donovan Crean was an English rugby union

Rugby union

Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...

 player who was part of the first official British and Irish Lions

British and Irish Lions

The British and Irish Lions is a rugby union team made up of players from England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales...

 team that toured South Africa in 1910

1910 British Lions tour to South Africa

The 1910 British Isles tour to South Africa was the eighth tour by a British Isles team and the fourth to South Africa. It is retrospectively classed as one of the British Lions tours, as the Lions naming convention was not adopted until 1950. As well as South Africa, the tour included a game in...

. He is one of a small number of Lions players to have never played for their national side.

Early life

Edward O'Donovan Crean was born in 1887 in Liverpool, the son of the oil refiner James Crean (b 1853) and Catherine O'Halloran. Although both his parents were also born in Liverpool, all of Crean's grandparents were Irish. He had a number of older siblings. Edward Crean attended and boarded at the catholic Ampleforth Abbey and College

Ampleforth College

Ampleforth College in North Yorkshire, England, is the largest Roman Catholic co-educational boarding independent school in the United Kingdom. It opened in 1802, as a boys' school, and is run by the Benedictine monks and lay staff of Ampleforth Abbey...

.

Rugby career

Crean played for Liverpool Football Club, a rugby club, which later became Liverpool and St Helens RFC, and is not to be confused with its association football equivalent. He played in the Oxford University clash in the 1908/09 season and played alongside the two Irish internationals, G. Pinion and M.G. Garry. He also saw the beginnings of potentially the greatest side of Liverpool that contained three international captains (Poulton-Palmer of England, Lloyd of Ireland and Turner of Scotland).

Despite having not been selected for the England team

England national rugby union team

The England national rugby union team represents England in rugby union. They compete in the annual Six Nations Championship with France, Ireland, Scotland, Italy, and Wales. They have won this championship on 26 occasions, 12 times winning the Grand Slam, making them the most successful team in...

, in 1910 Crean was selected for the first official British

British and Irish Lions

The British and Irish Lions is a rugby union team made up of players from England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales...

 tour to South Africa

1910 British Lions tour to South Africa

The 1910 British Isles tour to South Africa was the eighth tour by a British Isles team and the fourth to South Africa. It is retrospectively classed as one of the British Lions tours, as the Lions naming convention was not adopted until 1950. As well as South Africa, the tour included a game in...

 (in that it was sanctioned and selected by the four Home Nations official governing bodies).

First World War

In the First World War Crean joined the Royal Naval Air Service

Royal Naval Air Service

The Royal Naval Air Service or RNAS was the air arm of the Royal Navy until near the end of the First World War, when it merged with the British Army's Royal Flying Corps to form a new service , the Royal Air Force...

, which by the end of the war had merged with the Royal Flying Corps

Royal Flying Corps

The Royal Flying Corps was the over-land air arm of the British military during most of the First World War. During the early part of the war, the RFC's responsibilities were centred on support of the British Army, via artillery co-operation and photographic reconnaissance...

 to become the Royal Air Force

Royal Air Force

The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...

. By the end of the war he had risen to the rank of captain, and was elected to the Royal Aero Club

Royal Aero Club

The Royal Aero Club is the national co-ordinating body for Air Sport in the United Kingdom.The Aero Club was founded in 1901 by Frank Hedges Butler, his daughter Vera and the Hon Charles Rolls , partly inspired by the Aero Club of France...

of the UK on June 19, 1919.