Obiturary of Alfred Wilkes Drayson

Alfred Drayson's obituary appears in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society in February 1902, it appears this is where most of the information in that article by B. E. Schaefer comes from. Bizarrely it gets his middle name wrong, calling him Alfred WILLIAM Drayson, though all the other details clearly refer to Alfred Wilkes Drayson (including the detail about teaching the Duke of Connaught):

ALFRED WILLIAM DRAYSON was born at Waltham Abbey, Essex, in 1827. He received his education at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, and obtained his first commission in 1846. He served in the Kaffir war in 1847. and against the insurgent Boers in 1848. In both campaigns his knowledge of the Kaffir and Zulu languages were of great service, He was appointed instructor in surveying and field works at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, and shortly afterwards professor of surveying and practical astronomy. During this period he was instructor to the Duke of Connaught. On returning to military duty he was appointed to command the Royal Artillery at Portsmouth. In 1876 he proceeded to India in command of his brigade, and did valuable work in the rearmament of various forts in Bengal. Upon returning to England he was promoted to the rank of General. He retired from the army in 1883, and lived at Southsea till his death on the 27th of September 1901.
General Drayson wrote a number of stories, beginning in 1888 with Sporting Scenes among the Kaffirs, and following with Among the Zulus, The Gentleman Cadet, and many others. He published books on billiards and whist, on both of which games he was an authority.
As a military writer mention may be made of his work on military surveying, which had several editions and was used as a text-book.
In his astronomical writings General Drayson went somewhat astray, in one of these he attributed what were really errors of observation to a gradual increase of the Earth’s diameter; and in another he substituted a geometrical movement of the pole (which more or less accounted for the phenomena of recent years, but which was entirely empirical) for the orthodox precession, nutation, and change in inclination of ecliptic to equator which have a dynamical basis.
General Drayson was of a kindly disposition and made many friends. He passed a long life in great activity and rendered valuable services to his country.
He was elected a Fellow of the Society on the 20th of January 1868.