His most notable contribution was to bring to public attention the Crichel Down affair, in which the Government's failure to sell requisitioned land back to its original owner led to the resignation of the Minister responsible.
[1] He attended Milton Abbey School in Blandford Forum,[2] but in 1920 left to immediately start farming in Wiltshire and Dorset.
The constituency was traditionally Conservative but was then narrowly held by the Liberal Chief Whip Frank Byers, and Crouch was one of the more prominent candidates.
He was nominated to make a party political broadcast on the BBC Home Service in October 1948, which he began by saying that he was not sorry to have the chance to do a bit of grumbling on the air.
[5] At the 1950 general election, Crouch was helped by the decision of the Labour Party to nominate a candidate in North Dorset, as Byers had been able to take all the non-Conservative vote in winning the seat in 1945.
[8] Crouch's initial Parliamentary career concentrated on technical matters relating to government support for agriculture and attracted little attention.
When a motion was made to require the journalist involved to attend the House to apologise, Crouch supported a protest against it on grounds of injustice.
Byers said that he had given no promises to Labour in 1945 and 1946 and so could not have broken them; his solicitors had written to Crouch after the election offering to settle for an apology and withdrawal.
Anger at the conduct of the Ministry did not subside and when Dugdale spoke in opening the debate, he surprisingly announced his resignation from office.
[26] Later that year Crouch called on Chancellor of the Exchequer Harold Macmillan to cut spending by £500m, to increase tax allowances.
[29] Crouch became a frequent member of Parliamentary delegations to foreign countries, visiting the Netherlands, Germany, France, Spain and Denmark in 1954 to investigate slaughterhouses, and Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria in 1955.
[1] On behalf of his constituents, Crouch described the petrol rations imposed by Minister of Transport Harold Watkinson after the Suez invasion as "appalling", complaining that most allocations had been cut by 60%.