Vincent Cyril Richard Arthur Charles (V.C.R.A.C.) Crabbe

V.C.R.A.C. Crabbe was born on 29 October 1923 at Ussher town in Accra, Gold Coast to Richard Arthur Crabbe, the Chief Registrar of the Courts (the most senior staff of the Judicial Service of the Gold Coast), and his wife Stella Akoley Lartey.[3] Charles's father died eleven months after he was born.

Crabbe attended the Government Junior Boys' School and the Government Senior Boys' Schools, Kinbu from 1928 to 1938. In 1939 he entered Accra Academy at a time when a family relation, Samuel Azu Crabbe, was the school's headboy. There, he completed his secondary education in 1943

Crabbe started working at the Gold Coast Police Force Headquarters as a Second Division Clerk. Crabbe was tasked with infiltrating the mob during the riots in February 1948 to acquire information for the Police Service. He pursued an intermediate Bachelor of Arts degree via correspondence with Wolsey Hall, Oxford, while working as a police officer.

In 1955, Crabbe began working as an Assistant Crown Counsel for Ghana's Attorney-General's Office. He wrote the laws, ordinances, and acts of parliament that were approved by the National Assembly on the night of Ghana's independence day on March 6, 1957, along with the New Zealand attorney Fred Boyce

Crabbe served as a tutor and lecturer at the Ghana School of Law from 1958 to 1963, when he moved for Uganda

He was elevated to the post of first parliamentary counsel on June 1, 1958, making him the first African to hold the position of parliamentary counsel (state attorney). He was given the position of Head of Drafting at Ghana's Ministry of Justice, where he was in charge of creating the laws that Ghana's first National Assembly would enact. President Nkrumah sent him on a trip to Uganda in 1963, where he served as the government of Uganda's first legislative counsel and constitutional advisor while also writing the constitution for Uganda in 1966.

On his return from Uganda, he was named provisional electoral commissioner of Ghana in August 1968 to oversee the elections in 1969. Ghana's first-ever election commission was established by Crabbe. Additionally, he worked as a legislative draftsman for the 1969 Constituent Assembly, which created the 1969 Constitution of Ghana, and a special commissioner to the 1969 Constitutional Commission.

Shortly after his return from Uganda, on December 16, 1966, Crabbe was named a high court judge. He was appointed as Ghana's Interim Electoral Commissioner in 1968 while holding the position of Justice of the Court Appeal.

Crabbe was chairman of the 1979 Constituent Assembly of Ghana which drafted the 1979 Constitution of Ghana

He died at the age of 94 on 7 September 2018 in Accra, Ghana