His parents were Walter Thomas Crouch (1877–1959) and Blanche (nee Phillips, 1880–1922),[1] and he was born in 1915 when the family resided in Deptford, part of the Greenwich area of London.
[3] During October that year it was reported he was to be retained as the king's jockey[3] after Joe Childs retired.
[4] In the 1937 Epsom Derby he piloted the horse, Sandsprite, bred by Florence Nagle[5] at odds of 100–1, to second place behind Mid-day Sun, owned by Mrs Lettice Miller, the first woman owner ever to win the Derby.
[6][7][8] Crouch died when the de Havilland Dragon Rapide light aircraft he was a passenger in crashed on 20 June 1939.
[3] The aircraft had been travelling from Heston to Gosforth Park where Crouch was due to ride the king's horse Mouzelle in the Seaton Delaval Stakes; the horse was withdrawn as a mark of respect.