Biography

George Claridge Druce (1854-1932), botanist, was born at Potterspury, south Northamptonshire, on 23 May 1850. In 1866 Druce was apprenticed to P. Jeyes & Co. of Northampton, a firm of retail and manufacturing chemists, and in 1872 passed all his pharmaceutical examinations with high honours. In 1880 he helped to found the Ashmolean Natural History Society of Oxfordshire and began to investigate the county flora and A Flora of Oxfordshire followed in 1886 - and the degree of honorary MA from the university, in recognition of that achievement, three years later. He served on the Oxford city council from 1892 until his death, was chairman of the public health committee for thirty years, and was sheriff in 1897 and mayor in 1900. He also served on the council of the Pharmaceutical Society and was president in 1901-2 of the British Pharmaceutical Conference. On 29 February 1932, he died at his home, Yardley Lodge, 9 Crick Road, Oxford, after a short illness and was buried in the city's Holywell cemetery.

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