Geoffrey Crawford
Well-liked press secretary to the Queen who deftly handled a series of royal crises during the 1990s
GEOFFREY CRAWFORD, who has died aged 66, was press secretary to the Queen during the difficult years of the 1990s. He had been assistant press secretary from 1992, and was delegated by the Queen to look after Diana, Princess of Wales, following her separation from the Prince of Wales. Crawford enjoyed working with her and was impressed by her ambassadorial skills and her rapport with the general public. But when the Princess made her ill-advised 1995 Panorama interview without warning him, he immediately resigned from her staff.
Two years later he found himself in charge when Diana was killed in 1997. She died at the end of August, which found Crawford visiting his parents in Australia. He rushed home to cope with the ugly dealings of sections of the British and overseas media, who inflamed the tragedy by suggesting that the Queen was hard-hearted and not responding to the needs of the public, and complaining that no flag flew at half-mast over Buckingham Palace.
It was a long week. With the Queen under attack, he made the almost unprecedented gesture of personally addressing the cameras to inform them: “The Royal family have been hurt by suggestions that they are indifferent to the country’s sorrow at the tragic death of the Princess of Wales.” The Queen’s plans were changed at the last moment and she broadcast live from Buckingham Palace. Commenting on how this had been handled later, Lord Charteris, a former private secretary, conceded: “We were a day late.”
Crawford’s other duties as assistant press secretary from 1988 to 1993, deputy press secretary (1993-97), and press secretary in succession to Charles Anson (1997-2000) included dealing with the collapse of three royal marriages, those of Prince Charles, Princess Anne and Prince Andrew, the fire at Windsor Castle in 1992, and the public feuding between Prince Charles and Diana. Even the Queen’s State Visit to Pakistan and India in 1997 was not easy, the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh returning to say that it seemed as if they had been on one visit and the media on a completely different one.
Crawford also looked after press relations for Prince Andrew, Prince Edward, Princess Margaret and Princess Alexandra.
Following the death of the Princess of Wales, he was part of a team that created procedures to ensure that the media were better involved at the time of future royal demises, and in the light of the Queen’s broadcast before Diana’s funeral, in which she stated that there were lessons to be learnt, an element of informality was introduced into certain royal engagements, which at one point found the Queen signing a football. It took a while to get the balance right, but it was effective.
He was born in Australia on September 29 1950 as Geoffrey Douglas Crawford, son of the Rev Canon Douglas Crawford, Rector of All Saints Anglican Church, North Parramatta, New South Wales, and his wife, Edna. He was brought up there with a sister and two brothers, played the organ in his father’s church and attended the King’s School, Parramatta (Australia’s oldest independent school), and the University of Sydney, obtaining his BA in Political Science.
In the first of three careers, he entered the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs in 1974, serving mainly in the Middle East and speaking Arabic. He was posted to Papua New Guinea, becoming 3rd secretary at Port Moresby from 1974 to 1975, and vice-consul at Lae from 1975 to 1976. He then undertook language training at the American University in Cairo (1978-80), was Second Secretary and later First Secretary in Jeddah (198082), and then First Secretary in Baghdad (1983-4). His time in Iraq coincided with the Iran-iraq war and he frequently took sanctuary in shelters during bombing raids. Returning to Canberra, he worked in the public affairs section of the Foreign Affairs and Trade department.
His second career, in the Royal Household, came about when he was seconded to the Press Office at Buckingham Palace in 1987, working with the urbane Charles Anson and later succeeding him. Besides dealing with royal crises, he arranged the press side of many of the Queen’s overseas visits and was on duty to help members of her family on public engagements. When he left the Royal Household, he never spoke publicly of his experiences.
His first marriage, to Elizabeth Wheatcroft in 1980, which produced a son and two daughters, broke down in 1998. In 2000 he resigned from the Royal Household with a CVO, and returned to Australia to embark on his third career, working as a consultant with Edelman Public Relations Worldwide (Sydney) from 2001 to 2002, and then as director of corporation affairs, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, from 2002 to 2003, and director of strategy and communications at Australian Broadcasting Corporation from 2003 to 2005. His responsibilities included overseeing corporate communications, marketing, media relations, audience and consumer affairs, and corporate policy. He tackled issues such as accusations that ABC suffered from political bias, and greatly relished this job.
He married, secondly, in 1998, Catherine (Cate) Banks. Sadly his health broke down in 2005 and the following year he was forced to retire. He battled daily with bipolar disorder, and then the gradual onset of motor neurone disease. His second wife nursed him devotedly through these years. They moved first to Mittagong and then to Bowral, New South Wales, near the ground of Donald Bradman, which appealed to Geoff Crawford, whose interests included cricket, along with classical and jazz music, wine, reading, and swimming. While well enough, he wrote a series of cricketers’ biographies for the Bradman Museum.
For one who lived his life in the world of media, he was essentially a private man of great humility. He was charismatic and people were drawn to him for his dry humour and his encyclopaedic knowledge of many subjects. He faced his difficult illness with quiet dignity and fortitude.
He is survived by his second wife, his son and two daughters.
Geoffrey Crawford, born September 29 1950, died September 27 2017