 Drake's father, Rodney Shuttleworth Drake (1908–1988), moved to Rangoon, Burma, in the early 1930s to work as an engineer with the Bombay Burmah Trading Corporation.In 1934, Rodney met Nick's mother, Molly Lloyd (1916–1993), the daughter of a senior member of the Indian Civil Service.Rodney proposed in 1936, though they had to wait a year until she turned 21 before her family allowed them to marry.