Walter Selwyn Crosley was born in East Jaffrey, New Hampshire, on October 30, 1871, the son of a Universalist Church pastor. He was appointed to the U. S. Naval Academy from the Fourth Congressional District of Connecticut and entered on September 9, 1889. He graduated on June 2, 1893 and served the two years at sea then required by law as a Passed Midshipman, first assigned to the Naval Academy training ship and next to the new cruiser, that was at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, during the naval revolt against the Brazilian Government. In March 1894 he was attached to the that sailed by way of the Straits of Magellan to Mare Island Navy Yard on her way to the Asiatic Station. The ship arrived at San Francisco in July 1894 during a railroad strike and while at Mare Island, Passed Midshipman Crosley was given command of a detail that manned a Gatling gun loaded on a flat car ahead of a locomotive with the purpose of dissuading the strikers so that trains might proceed without altercation.