Born in Dublin, Crawford was educated at a Christian Brothers school.
[1] Crawford spent a further period in England in the mid-1920s, but by the 1930s was back in Ireland and became increasingly prominent in the trade union movement.
He became a full-time official, and served as President of the Dublin Council of Trade Unions in 1939.
In this role, he negotiated a merger between it and the rival Irish Trades Union Congress, the two amalgamating in 1959 to form the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU).
[1] Crawford was joint secretary of the ICTU until his retirement in 1966.