[1] Drabble was a lecturer in botany at St Thomas's Hospital Medical School from 1901 to 1903.
He then moved to Liverpool University where he was a lecturer from 1905 to 1906;[1] there Drabble and Leo Farmar were the two members of the economic botany section of the scientific staff of Liverpool University's Institute of Commercial Research in the Tropics.
[3] Before their marriage, Eric and Hilda collected botanical specimens together.
As a married couple, they jointly published a number of papers, sometimes with other co-authors.
[4] When Eric Drabble died in 1933, his estate was valued at £6,387.