CO129-533-5 Lt. Col. R.F. Drury- C.B.E.- pension 3-2-1931 - 14-12-1931 — Page 22

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Appendix "A".

DRURY. Lieutenant-Colonel Richard Frederick, C.B.E. A.M.I.C.E. Civil Servant. Civil Engineer.

In 1887, Lieutenant-Colonel Drury joined the Colonial Civil Service (Public Works Department), as Civil Engineer and was stationed at Hong Kong, where he held the appointment of Superintendent of Crown Lands, Senior Assistant Engineer and Executive Engineer. In addition to the planning, execution and maintenance of every variety of Public Works in a rapidly developing Colony, he was responsible for the working of the provisions of the Public Health and Building Acts: organised and worked throughout the Black Plague in Hong Kong with the voluntary assistance of the officers and men of the Shropshire Regiment, and wrote a Report to the Government on some of the causes of the epidemic, including recommendations for dealing with it, which was subsequently printed as a Government Blue Book. He was also instrumental in reducing Malarial Fever in the Colony by taking active steps for the extermination, locally, of the Mosquito. In recognition for his services, he received promotion from the Secretary of State for the Colonies, the Rt. Honble. Joseph Chamberlain, In 1900 he was transferred to the Lord Chancellor's new Department in London for the Registration of Land under the Land Transfer Act, taking part in its organisation as Chief Superintendent of the Survey Department.

In October 1915, he volunteered for and received a temporary Commission as Major, and was attached to the War Office Directorate of Military Aeronautics, under General Sir David Henderson, K.C.B. Director General of Military Aeronautics.

D.S.O.

Here he personally collected and organised a Department of Civil Engineers and Suveyors, for establishing and co-ordinating Constructional Requirements and Engineering Works for Training Grounds, Aerial Gunnery and other Schools, Aircraft Parks, Testing, Experimental and Home Defence Stations, Kite Balloon and Repair Depots, etc., for the Royal Air Force, at home and in Canada, value over 25 million pounds. These building requirements for a new science changed continually in accordance with the latest war experiences. He further organised the search for and selection of sites for Aerodromes throughout the British Isles, and established an auxiliary labour supply to expedite the construction of these works. The supply of Pilots to the Front being mainly governed by the provision of Aerodromes for training purposes at home, this work had to be executed under extreme pressure. Mentioned in the Secretary of State for War's despatches in February, 1917. He was given the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel on the staff as Deputy Assistant Director of Air Organisation in March 1917, promoted Assistant Director of Air Organisation, August 1917.