After passing through Harrow School with distinction he was admitted minor pensioner of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, 14 June 1831, and began residence in the following October.
[3] In 1838 he became classical lecturer at Caius, but, having been ordained, he left Cambridge in 1839 to take sole charge of Alderley, Gloucestershire, a curacy which he exchanged the following year for that of Bromham, Wiltshire.
Drury became rector of Alderley in 1843, and two years later vicar of Bremhill with Foxham and Highway, Wiltshire, a preferment which he received from Dr. Denison, Bishop of Salisbury, to whom, and his successor in the see, Dr. Hamilton, he was examining chaplain.
"After taking holy orders," wrote Mr. H. J. Hodgson, "Mr. Drury proved himself a sound theologian and a valuable assistant to the bishop of his diocese, an earnest preacher, and an active parish priest.
… As a friend and companion he was most genial and affectionate, possessed of lively wit and humour, full of anecdote and badinage, but tempered with excellent tact and judgment, all combined with a modesty and absence of self-assertion."