On the 15th of January 1804 the British entomologist Dru Drury died, and was St Martins in the Fields, London.

Born in 1725 he trained as a silversmith and took over the family business in 1748. A keen entomologist he was president of the Society of Entomologists from 1782-1784. After the death of his wife Esther in 1787, he retired from business in 1789, so that he could spend is time sudying insects. A major collector of exotic insects his collection consisted of some 11,000 speciesd.

His major work was the three volume edition of "Illustrations of Natural History, wherein are exhibited upwards of 240 figures of Exotic Insects" published between 1770 - 1787. Although there are no scientific names in the body of the work, the index gave full binomial names, and as such is reputed to be the first in England to adopt the Linnean method.