Gerald Croft, son of Sir George Croft, of Croft’s Ltd. in J.B. Priestly’s “An Inspector Calls.” Gerald looks up to and deeply respects Arthur, and appears to model himself on him. He is however, from a more upper-class family, his mother, the Lady Croft, is a member of the aristocracy/nobility and is apparently fairly snobbish about his engagement to Sheila Birling.
Gerald, however, has not been entirely faithful to Sheila, in fact, for a period of six months over the previous summer, he had been seeing Eva Smith, whom he knew as Daisy Renton. He feels very little guilt over it, and even considers himself not to be at fault because he made Eva happy for a short time. However, him leaving Eva was probably the worst thing that could have happened to her, and she was very depressed afterwards.
Gerald doesn’t change at all, and is even the character who proves that the Inspector wasn’t genuine. He can’t understand Sheila’s reaction and puts it down to her being in shock. He believes that Sheila will come back to him after she calms down.
In the short experimental piece “Birling” Gerald is the only major character not to be reprised. We are informed by way of a newspaper heading that he died in World War One.