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Eric Drabble (1877-1933). 
The number of distinguished British botanists who have 
passed away during the last few years amounts to a tragedy. 
Eric Drabble, D.Sc., F.L.S., was not only a good taxonomic 
botanist, who had specialized in several genera, and especially 
in the Melanium section of Viola, but he was a botanist in the 
broad sense who had for years taught and examined in 
Botany, and as a physiologist he had published articles in 
various periodicals including the Bio-Chemical Journal. 
He was born in 1877 at Herne House, near Chesterfield, 
and first went to the local Grammar School. At 22 he 
proceeded to University College, Sheffield, and subsequently 
to the Royal College of Science, South Kensington, where he 
took the London B.Sc. degree, with 1st class Honours in 
Botany. In 1901 he became Lecturer in Botany at St. 
Thomas’s Hospital Medical School, and in 1903 Lecturer and 
Senior Demonstrator in Botany at the Royal College of 
Science. In 1903 he also became D.Sc. London ; and his 
thesis “ On the Anatomy of the Roots of Palms,” was 
published by the Linnean Society {Trans. Linn. Soc. ser. 2, 
1904). After two years at S. Kensington he was appointed 
Lecturer in Economic Botany at the University of Liverpool, 
but in 1908 he returned to London as head of the Botanical 
Department at the Northern Polytechnic. Ill-health in 1924 
caused his retirement to Freshwater, Isle of Wight. 
Asthma and heart trouble debarred him from active service 
during the War, but he helpfully combined the botanical work 
of the Birkbeck College with that of the Northern Polytechnic. 
At Freshwater he recovered sufficiently to be examiner in 
botany and biology for London and other Universities ; and 
he managed to do a considerable amount of work in taxonomy, 
including the examination of plants and writing notes thereon 
for both the Exchange Clubs until (and we fear partly during) 
the long illness which culminated in his death on 3rd August. 
Drabble’s earliest contributions to the Journal of Botany 
did not appear until 1906, when five short notes were printed. 
Other papers followed up to 1916, the chief being “ The 
British Pansies,” issued as a Supplement in 1909, and “ Notes 
on the Flora of Derbyshire ” in four parts. In 1926 he 
resumed writing, and in each subsequent year produced 
papers in the Journal of Botany and in the B.E.C. Report, 
while from 1907 he had been sending notes to the Watson 
