Byron Drury
Born1815 (1815)
Harrow on the Hill, London, England
Died1888 (aged 72–73)
Allegiance United Kingdom
Service/branch Royal Navy
RankAdmiral

Admiral Byron Drury (1815–1888) was a British naval officer.

Biography

Drury was born in Harrow on the Hill, the son of Rev. Henry Drury, of Harrow School; at which place he, and his father, Dr. Drury, were masters for about 70 years.[1]

Byron Drury entered the Royal Naval College in 1828; and embarked, 13 August 1830, as a Volunteer, on board HMS Aetna surveying vessel, under the command of Captain Edward Belcher. He afterwards served for upwards of three years, latterly as a midshipman, in HMS Rainbow, under Captain Sir John Franklin, on the Mediterranean station; and, joining next HMS Racehorse under Captain Sir James Everard Home, took an active part, as mate, in the siege of Pará in Brazil in 1835, where he was for several days in action with the enemy’s batteries.[2] Landing at night he conducted over 200 Brazilians to the beach for embarkation from the midst of the insurgents.[3][4] He was also involved in surveying the Pará River.[5]

Drury was with Sir Gordon Bremer, in HMS Alligator, he subsequently assisted in surveying the harbour at Port Essington, in South Australia, during the formation of that place into a settlement.[2]

On 30 November 1839 he became an acting-lieutenant by which time HMS Alligator was in Indian waters. He was engaged in most of the hostilities against the Chinese. He commanded a division of boats at the first capture of Canton in 1841,[6] For his services he received the China medal,[3] and officially promoted, by commission dated 8 June 1841.[2]

On 6 July 1841 he transferred to HMS Calliope under Captain Augustus Leopold Kuper While in Calliope, he proved to be particularly useful by his valuable exertions in surveying and sounding the channels in the Yang-tse-Kiang, preparatory to the ascent of the British fleet to Nanking.[2]

Drury’s next appointments was on 30 September 1843, to the steamer HMS Shearwater, under Captain Charles Gepp Robinson, which was employed in surveying the west coast of Scotland. On 10 February 1845 he transferred to HMS Herald, under Captain Henry Kellett, fitting for the Pacific. He was superseded from the latter ship on promotion to the rank of Commander on 22 May 1845.[2] In February 1846, he returned to Shearwater and continued to work on the survey of the west coast of Scotland.[5]

Admiralty Chart No 2574 Mercury Bay, surveyed by Drury in 1852

In December 1850 he took command of HMS Pandora, which was employed from 20 until June 1856 surveying the coasts of New Zealand, continuing the work of John Lort Stokes in HMS Acheron.[5] He was thanked and recommended to the Admiralty by the Governor, Sir George Grey. On leaving the colony he received a testimonial and a service of plate from the Chamber of Commerce and a portion of the inhabitants of Auckland. He was a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.[3][7]

He was promoted to captain in 1857 and retired. He was promoted to captain in 1866, to rear-admiral in 1875 and vice-admiral in 1879.[3]

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

Drury died in Cheltenham in November 1888,[3] and there is a memorial to his death in St Mary's, Harrow on the Hill.

Family

He married, 9 June 1846, Helen Stewart (died 1881), daughter of Robert Morris of Moorburn, Ayrshire.[2]

Legacy

Drury Inlet in the Queen Charlotte Strait region of the Central Coast of British Columbia, Canada, extending west from Wells Passage to the northwest of North Broughton Island, northwest of the town of Port Hardy is named after him.[8]

As captain of HMS Pandora, he took part in the survey of New Zealand that led to the publication of the New Zealand Pilot.[9] This included Manukau Harbour in 1853.[10] - nearby Drury, New Zealand is named after him.

References

  1. ↑ One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: O'Byrne, William R. (1849). "Drury, Byron". A Naval Biographical Dictionary. London: John Murray. p. 309.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 O'Byrne 1849, p. 309.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Public Domain One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: "Obituary of Byron Drury in The Times". Pdavis.nl. Retrieved 11 September 2016.
  4. ↑ Clowes, Wm. Laird (1897). The Royal Navy. A history from the earliest times to the present. Volume VI. London: Sampson Low & Company. p. 275.
  5. 1 2 3 Dawson, Llewellyn Styles (1885). Memoirs of hydrography, including brief biographies of the principal officers who have served in H.M. Naval Surveying Service between the years 1750 and 1885. Part 2. - 1830-1885. Eastbourne: Henry W. Keay. p. 70.
  6. ↑ O'Byrne 1849, p. 309 cites Vide Gazette 1841, p. 1505
  7. ↑ Davis, Paul. "Pandora Byron Drury R.N." www.pdavis.nl. Retrieved 13 February 2019.
  8. ↑ "BC Geographical Names". Apps.gov.bc.ca. 6 April 1950. Retrieved 11 September 2016.
  9. ↑ Richards, G.H.; Evans, F.J. (1875). The New Zealand Pilot (Fourth ed.). London: Hydrographic Office, Admiralty.
  10. ↑ "Drury - NZHistory, New Zealand history online". nzhistory.govt.nz. Retrieved 13 February 2019.
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