Born in London, educated at Merchant Taylors' School, St. John's College, Oxford where he won several scholarships. Ordained Deacon in 1875 and priest in 1876, Curate of St. Giles', Oxford 1875-77 leaving to become Headmaster of Bradfield College. In 1880 move on to the headmastership of Malvern College, resigning in 1885 to become Rector of Sutton Surrey and later of Denton, Norfolk. In 1901 he was nominated by Lod Salisbury to the Crown Benefice of Swelme near Camberley and in 1903 was collated by the Bishop of Peterborough to a residential Canonry.

W.W.Fowler, in an obituary in EMM., 47, 1911, 114,  after noting that Cruttwell was one of the country's foremast classical scholars, wrote 'entomology was his favourite hobby and he collected both micro- and macro- Lepidoptera and Coleoptera; in the latter group he was fortunate enough to find a specimen of the very rare Amara alpina on the top of one of the Scottish mountains two or three years ago. He was an extremely keen collector. although he had not much time to set and arrange his specimens as he would have wished. His friend and colleague at Merton College, the late Bishop Crighton of London, looked with disfavor on his natural history pursuits  (fearing, apparently, that they might draw him from his other studies) and tried to dissuade him from going on with them, but as he said, in relating the incident to the writer of this notice, the love of natural history was bred in him, and he told the Bishop that he could not give it up.'

The following information about his beetle collection was published by Julie and Mick Beeson in Col., 2(1), 1993, 28 'In April 1911 Crutwell's beetle collection was donated by his widow to Peterborough Museum. It is today,for the most part, in good condition although some specimens show some signs of past damage by pest insects. The collection consists of approximately 76,500 specimens. Most families are represented, with the exceptions of the Tenebrionidae, Aderidae, Nemonychidae, Curculionidae, Scolytidae and Platypodidae. One hundred Leicestershire specimens of Ptiliidae were removed from the Cruttwell Collection by Leicestershire Museums in exchange for a reference collection of weevils.'

'Approximately' 40% of Cruttwell's specimens have pin data and the following localities are recorded: Aviemore, Braemar, Inverness, Sutherland, Killarney, Co. Galway, Herne Bay, Isle of Wight, Sherwood, Burton on Trent, Tenby, Malvern, Oxford, Ewelme, Peterborough, Wicken, Holme, Warham, Denton, Yarmouth, Southwold, Walberswick, Palling, New Forest, Deal and Swanage.'

The original cabinet in which the collection was donated was damaged during fumigation in the 1970s, the entire collection then being transferred to store boxes until the present 30-drawer mahogany cabinet was purchased about five years ago. The specimens were arranged in taxonomic order in their present home by Dr D.B.Shirt and the collection is now almost completely catalogued.'

Lott (2009), 21 notes that Cruttwell was an original member of the Leicester Entomological Club who, although he published no records of beetles during his time in Leicestershire, was credited by Bouskell with working on Leicestershire beetles. There are many references to specimens collected by Crutwell in Morley (1899) and there is a small collection made by him in Leicester Museum which was acquired by exchange from Peterborough Museum (acc. n. Z1197.1978).

There is an obituary by F.A.Dixey in ERJV, 23, 1911, pp.183-84, and others in DNB, 1912 Supplement, and Times 5 April 1911. Another account is in Who's Who, 1911. (MD 4/02, 11/09, 1/22)