George Claridge Druce

Who was George Claridge Druce?

George Claridge Druce, MA, LLD, JP, FRS, FLS was an English botanist and a Mayor of Oxford.

G. Claridge Druce was born at Potterspury on Watling Street in Northamptonshire. He was the illegitimate son of Jane Druce, born 1815 in Buckinghamshire.

He went to school in the village of Yardley Gobion. At 16, he was apprenticed to P. Jeyes & Co., a pharmaceutical firm in Northampton. In 1872, he passed exams to become a pharmacist. His main interest was botany. In 1876, he was involved in the foundation of the Northampton Natural History Society.

In June 1879, Druce moved to Oxford and set up his own chemist's shop, Druce & Co., at 118 High Street, which continued until his death. He was one of the first in Oxford to have a telephone. He also featured as a shopkeeper in the Oxford novel Zuleika Dobson by Max Beerbohm.

In 1880, Druce helped to found the Ashmolean Natural History Society of Oxfordshire, originally established as the Ashmolean Society in 1828. It was merged with the Oxfordshire Natural History Society by Druce in 1901. In 1886 he published The Flora of Oxfordshire, in 1887 The Flora of Berkshire, in 1926 The Flora of Buckinghamshire and in 1929 The Flora of West Ross.