Henry Drury (educator)

Henry Drury memorial, St Mary's, Harrow on the Hill

Henry Joseph Thomas Drury (27 April 1778 – 5 March 1841), known as Harry Drury, was an English educator, classical scholar, and friend of Lord Byron.

Henry Drury was born 27 April 1778, at Harrow, London, the son of Joseph Drury, headmaster of Harrow School. He was educated at both Harrow and Eton, and at King's College, Cambridge (matriculated 1797, B.A. 1801, M.A. 1804, Fellow 1799–1808).

He was a master at Harrow for 41 years from 1801 to 1841 and was tutor there to Lord Byron to whom he later became a close friend and correspondent.

Drury was elected to the Roxburghe Club on its first anniversary in 1813. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in February 1818

He died at Harrow on 5 March 1841.

Personal life

In 1808 he married Caroline Tayler, daughter of Archdale Wilson Tayler, and sister of the artist John Frederick Tayler. Just two years after the marriage, Byron wrote to Francis Hodgson “Talking of marriage puts me in mind of Drury (who, I suppose, has a dozen children by this time, all fine, fretful brats); I will never forgive matrimony for having spoiled such an excellent bachelor.” Caroline's sister Susannah Tayler later married Hodgson.

he had five sons, including Henry Drury, Archdeacon of Wiltshire, and Admiral Byron Drury.

A mezzotint of Drury by Thomas Hodgetts, after a portrait by Margaret Sarah Carpenter is in the National Portrait Gallery (London)