Matthew Crawford, Jr.

“He was listed as Missing in Action until his body was found in 1950 and buried at Lorraine Military Cemetery in St. Avold, France, with many of the ‘Flowers of the Forest’ from the Battle of the Bulge. He received the Air Medal and the Purple Heart.”

– Jim Crawford ’67

Matthew Crawford, Jr., remembered by his son, Jim Crawford

Matthew Crawford, Jr.’s plane was a P51 Mustang fighter. He was shot down and died on March 5, 1945, following a bombing run over Berlin.

Matthew Crawford, Jr., was born in Paisley, Scotland, in 1918 and came to America in 1925 with his family. They settled in Philadelphia and he attended public school, where he excelled in academics, fine arts and sports.

He set the high school record for the pole vault while enrolled at Hampton High School in Virginia. He went on to gain an athletic scholarship at William and Mary and attended from 1939 until 1942 when he joined the U.S. Army. While at William and Mary, which was in the Southern Conference, he set a conference record of 13 feet in the pole vault with a bamboo pole. He married Rosalyn Sadoff in 1943. I was born in 1944.

He was a flight instructor stationed in Mobile, Alabama, and was sent overseas in November of 1944. He was stationed in Leicester, England, and participated in many raids as support for bombers.