Thorn-Drury was born in 1860, the eldest son of George John Drury of Canterbury,[1] an ironfounder.
[5] A scholar in the literature of the Caroline and Restoration periods and a specialist in minor Restoration poets, Thorn-Drury produced authoritative editions of the works of Edmund Waller (in 1893) and Thomas Randolph (in 1929) and collated several anthologies of miscellaneous verse.
[7] Over many years of study Thorn-Drury built up a significant library of 17th- and early 18th-century literature, which after his death was auctioned at Sotheby's between 1931 and 1932.
[9] Additional material, including notes, transcripts and miscellaneous papers, were acquired in 1947 and 1952.
[10][11] Altogether the Bodleian's collection represents the unpublished portion of Thorn-Drury's life work and preserves a significant quantity of bibliographical information on the poetical writers of the Restoration and of earlier and slightly later periods.