The disappearance of commander crabb

13 min read

He was a war hero and Britain’s number one diver, but during a secret mission investigating a Russian cruiser, he vanished never to return…

Written by Callum McKelvie

On 19 April 1956, Lieutenant-Commander Lionel “Buster” Crabb vanished into the murky waters of Portsmouth Harbour, never to return. Crabb was a diver of some renown and had been investigating the Russian cruiser Ordzhonikidze on a secret spy mission for MI6. A hero of World War II, he helped defend British ships at port in Gibraltar from Italian saboteurs and afterwards became a public figure as well as an occasional spy. Then, at the age of 47 he seemingly disappeared off the face of the earth.

The important files pertaining to Crabb’s disappearance remain under embargo and their contents top secret until at least 2057. Was he murdered attempting to defect? Captured by Soviet agents? Or was his death simply an accident? Commander Crabb’s fateful final dive is just one part of a life story as enigmatic as the circumstances surrounding his disappearance.

A MAN ADRIFT

Lionel Kenneth Phillip Crabb was born on 28 January 1909 to a poor family in Streatham, South West London. His family’s poverty was compounded in 1914 when his father was killed during action in World War I. Lionel was only five years old. As a youth he spent time studying in Brighton, but he seemed to have struggled academically and detested the experience. According to Mike and Jacqui Welham in their book The Crabb Enigma, he earned a reputation as the family’s ‘black sheep’, preferring a more outgoing and adventurous lifestyle.

Even at this young age, Crabb had fantasies of a life at sea. He spent three years on the training ship Conway but ran away to the United States where he remained for a short time. By the 1930s he returned to England and it is here that his life becomes difficult to follow. According to the Welhams he had an unhappy experience working as an underwear model, before either jointly running an art studio or at the very least working as a salesman at one. Crabb’s natural charm would have made him perfect for such a job, but he was also known as an eccentric. He could often be seen strutting the streets wearing a monocle and carrying a distinctive sword stick with a silver crabshaped handle.

Gibraltar, where Crabb worked to protect the bay from Italian saboteurs, shown here lit up with searchlights

The Ordzhonikidze arrives in Portsmouth the day before Crabb’s disappearance

However, Crabb still harboured a desire to see the world and never stayed in one place long. For a time he lived in China where he first dabbled in the mur

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