William Price Drury

Lieutenant-Colonel William Price Drury CBE (8 November 1861–21 January 1949) was a Royal Marine Light Infantry officer, novelist, playwright, and Mayor of Saltash from 1929 to 1931.

The saying "Tell It to the Marines", often incorrectly attributed to King Charles II, actually came from the preface of his collection The Tadpole of an Archangel. Drury also wrote a poem entitled The Dead Marines in tribute to the Royal Marines after the Duke of Clarence supposedly called empty alcohol bottles "Dead Marines".

Drury was educated at Brentwood School, Essex, and at Plymouth College. During his Royal Marines career, he served on the China Station and with the Mediterranean Fleet. He commanded the Royal Marines from HMS Camperdown and HMS Astraea who landed on Crete after local Christians and British soldiers were massacred by Turkish Bashi-bazouk forces in 1898.

He was a member of the Naval Intelligence Department from 1900 until he resigned to pursue his literary career the following year. At the outbreak of World War I, he rejoined the Royal Marines and served as an intelligence officer at Plymouth.[1]

The Royal Marines Barracks at Stonehouse, Plymouth have a Drury Room containing his desk and memorabilia[2]

Drury's mother-in-law was the romantic novelist Mrs. Pender Cudlip.[3] The actress Ruth Kettlewell was his niece.

List of works

Drury's play The Flag Lieutenant was filmed in 1919, 1926, and 1932 with The Further Adventures of the Flag Lieutenant filmed in 1927.[4] Drury also wrote the plays The Privy Council (1905) and The Admiral Speaks (1910).

References

  1. ↑ Who Was Who 1941-1952 Volume IV, 1952,A&C Black
  2. ↑
  3. ↑ Sutherland, John, The Stanford Companion to Victorian Fiction, 1989, Stanford University Press, p.165
  4. ↑ Internet Movie Database
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