Druce, George Claridge (1850-1932)

British botanist and mayor of Oxford who helped to found the Ashmolean Natural History Society of Oxford 1880 and published The Flora of Oxfordshire 1886.

Druce was born in Potterspury, Northamptonshire. He was able to obtain an education while apprenticed to P Jeyes and Company in Northampton, a retail and manufacturing chemist. He studied for his pharmaceutical exams in the evenings and passed them 1873, enabling him to devote his free time to his childhood love of natural history.

In June 1879, he left his employer and set up as an independent chemist in Oxford. He matriculated at Magdalen College and obtained an MA in 1891. He was a Freemason and served on the city council from 1892 until his death. He was mayor of Oxford 1900, president of the Pharmaceutical Society 1901 and 1902, and obtained a DSc from Oxford University by examination 1924.