Ethel Drus was born in Cape Town on 10 March 1919. She was a junior lecturer at the University of Cape Town before going overseas on a post-graduate scholarship in 1946. She did her Ph.D. at the London School of Economics. She held posts in Tasmania, Fiji and Australia before jointing the staff of Southampton University, where she was a Professor of Education until her retirement in 1981. She died in England on 6 February 2002.