Born in Sheffield, the son of landscape painter James Henry Crossland and wife Mary Ann
School - Windermere Grammar
1894-1900 Student at University of London (gained BSc. in 1900)
9 July 1897 Admitted to Clare College
Matriculated Michaelmas 1897 Scholar
Natural Sciences Tripos Part I, 1st Class, 1899
Part II, 1st Class, 1900
B.A. 1900; M.A. 1904
1900 - 1902 Assistant to Sir Charles Eliot (British Consul-General at Zanzibar, Commissioner for East African Protectorate)
1902-1904 Assistant to Professor William Carmichael McIntosh at St Andrews University
July-Sept 1904 Collecting in the Cape Verde Islands
Oct 1904 - May 1905 Investigating fauna and flora of the Sudan Coast of the Red Sea
1905-1922 Director of the Sudan Pearl Fishery
6 Jan 1906 Married Catherine Mary Dobson
1923 Scientific research in England
1924-1926 Joined the St George expedition to the South Pacific in 1924
1927 Scientific research in England
11 June 1927 2nd marriage, to Danish national Hildur Thal-Jantzen
1928 - Returned to Tahiti, to study coral reefs
1930-38 Established and directed a marine biological station at Ghardaqa on the Red Sea Coast
1938-1943 Moved to Denmark with Hildur and their son Ingolf Crossland continuing scientific work at the University of Copenhagen's Zoological Museum until his death