The remains of sole statute law Revision Commissioner and former Supreme Court Judge, Professor Justice Vincent Cyril Richard Arthur Charles (V.C.R.A.C) Crabbe, have been buried.
Justice Crabbe contributed tremendously to legal reforms and education in Ghana and beyond. He died at age 95 after a short illness. In this write-up, GBC’s Naomi Komeh looks at the life of the legal luminary and some of his contributions to national development.
Born on October 29, 1923 at Kinkam in Ussher Town, Accra, to Richard Arthur Crabbe, a Chief Registrar of the Gold Coast Judicial Service of Nii Yao Duade We, and Stella Akoley Lartey, a seamstress from the Nii Walakataka We of Osu, Vincent Cyril Richard Arthur Charles Crabbe was the youngest of his father’s children.
What’s in a name?
The name Crabbe is Flemish in origin and can be traced to Friesland, a province northwest of The Netherlands.
Charles’s ancestor is said to have come from Norfolk in the United Kingdom to work for F.A. Swanzy’s Company, which was mainly based in Accra.
While working, he had three children with a woman from James Town.
It is by these three children, one of whom was Charles’s grandfather, that the family spread to different parts of the country.
All siblings of Charles had been given several English names, a tradition that continues in the Crabbe family.
Being the last born, he had to take on the names of his father, that is Richard Arthur, plus those from his father’s cousins, Vincent and Cyril, and Charles from the man who performed the kpojiemɔ, the outdooring/naming ceremony.
An aunt, who witnessed his naming ceremony, however insists that he had two other names, Adolphus and Earnshaw.
Going by this, his full name then was Vincent Cyril Richard Arthur Adolphus Earnshaw Charles Crabbe.
Throughout his elementary and secondary schooling, he used only two of his names, that is Charles Crabbe.
It was when he was about to enter the Inns of Court that he decided to use all his names except for Adolphus and Earnshaw.
