Alfred Wilkes Drayson writing in Beeton's Boy's Own

As well as publishing books Alfred Drayson also wrote in "Beeton's Boy's Own" magazine. Here is the cover of a story he wrote entitled "Ingonyama, the Caffre Chief: A Tale of Southern Africa," it is from Boy's Own Magazine (vol.3, pt. 22) 1871 (image is a link to this website).

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.

The Gentleman Cadet

Among the many books published by Alfred Drayson was "The Gentleman Cadet". A fictionalized account of his time as a cadet at the Woolwich Military Academy, I think aimed at children. The book is out of copyright and available in its entirety here on Google Books.

Shown below are a selection of pages from the book (taken from the Google Books PDF file), including some illustrations of scenes in the book (the illustrations are by C.J. Staniland).

Alfred Wilkes Drayson and Arthur Conan Doyle - continued

There is more information about Alfred Drayson, and his relationship with Arthur Conan Doyle, in this paper entitled "Sherlock Holmes and some astronomical connections" by B. E. Schaefer.

The Professor Newcomb that the text refers to is Professor Simon Newcomb who was a major scientific inspiration for Conan Doyle. The "Kaffir War of 1847" was I believe the 7th Xhosa War of 1846-1847 (aka "The War of the Axe") and the "insurgent Boers" refers to the rebellion led by Andries Pretorius in 1848 (which was defeated at the Battle of Boomplaats) . Drayson's book "The Gentleman Cadet", which is mentioned, is available online here:


Drayson was a close personal friend of Sir Arthur’s while they lived at Southsea, a town near Portsmouth. England, Their acquaintance was made while Drayson was a patient of Dr Doyle. Their friendship blossomed when Doyle was initiated into the mysteries of spiritualism through seances held at Drayson’s home. The friends met frequently. went on a vacation together. belonged to several of the same learned societies, and Doyle even dedicated a book to Drayson. The two men had many deep conversations that impressed Doyle enough that he would recount them in detail thirty years later. It was during these conversations that Doyle first heard of Professor Newcomb.
Alfred Drayson was a career military man first commissioned in 1846 after graduation from the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich. He served in the Kaffir War of 1847 and against the insurgent Boers in 1848, during which his knowledge of the Kaffir and Zulu languages were of great service. Upon return to England, he was appointed as instructor of surveying and practical astronomy at his old Academy. while working part-time at Greenwich Observatory, starting in 1858. He was elected to the Royal Astronomical Society in 1868. although his astronomical writings were of dubious quality (for example. he deduced the gradual expansion of the Earth from observations for which others only saw errors). In 1876, he was sent to India in command of a brigade, where he served in Bengal. He retired from the army in 1883 and moved to Southsea. He wrote two books on the game of whist, at which he was an authority, and made a significant income, He also wrote two books (titled Sporting Scenes among the Kaffirs and Among the Zulus) which gloried in animal hunting in South Africa and the western Himalayas.
Drayson sported a long moustache, a large forehead with receding hairline, and deep-lined brows. He recalls in his book The Gentleman Cadet about his youth when he felt a sense of extra power at the ability to exponentiate numbers in his head with the aid of the binomial theorem. He has been correctly characterized by Doyle’s biographers as an astronomer and mathematician, and his scientific interests closely match those of Professor Newcomb.
In 1875. Colonel Drayson published a paper titled Variation in the Obliquity of the Ecliptic. This article and several similar books advanced an incredible (and wrong) thesis regarding the obliquity on which New- comb was the world’s leading authority. In addition, both observed the 1882 transit of Venus. It would only be natural that the Colonel would meet with the Professor during one of his four visit.s to Greenwich (where Drayson worked) before 1876. although I have found no record of this meeting. However, Drayson does refer many times to the Nautical Almanac (of which Newcoinb was editor) and has disparaged an unnamed winner of the RAS Gold Medal (it can only be Newcomb) who has ignored his results on the obliquity.
Finally, the Professor and the Colonel both shared a deep interest in spiritualism.

Alfred Wilkes Drayson and Arthur Conan Doyle

As well as being a military man, astronomer, and author, Alfred Wilkes Drayson was a friend of Arthur Conan Doyle. If a note in this addition of "The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes" (made by Christopher Roden) is to be believed:

The angle at which the elliptic (the apparent circle in which the sun describes its annual course across the sky) stands to the equator. The angle has been diminishing for about four thousand years. In choosing this subject for discussion by Holmes, ACD[Arthur Conan Doyle] is recalling a meeting of the Portsmouth Literary and Scientific Society which took place on 12 Feb. 1884. At that meeting, Major-General Alfred Wilks Drayson, FRAS (I827-1901) spent some time demonstrating how the earth went round the sun, and the moon round the earth, and how the tilt of the earth’s axis was responsible for the change in the seasons. He also discussed the Obliquity of the Ecliptic and this would stay in ACD’s mind for some nine years until he used the phrase in this story. This is not the first instance when the Sherlock Holmes stories show signs of Drayson’s influence. In ch. 2 of “A Study In Starlet”, Watson relates:

"My surprise reached a climax, however, when I found incidentally that he was ignorant of the Copernican Theory and of the composition of the Solar System. That any civilized human being in this nineteenth century should not be aware that the earth traveled round the sun appeared to me to be such an extraordinary feat that I could hardly realize it.
You appear to be astonished,’ he said, smiling at my expression of surprise. ‘Now that I do know It I shall do my best to forget it.’ "

Drayson had been a professor at the Military Academy at Woolwich, an explorer, and the author of fiction and travel books. In addition, he had been a psychical researcher for thirty years, and had sat with all the leading mediums of the day. It seems almost certain that Drayson was highly influential in turning the young Dr Conan Doyle’s mind towards a deeper study, and eventual acceptance, of the spiritualism which was to become his driving force during the final years of his life. Their friendship led ACD to dedicate a volume of his short stories ‘To my friend Major General A. W. Drayson as a slight token of my admiration for his great and as yet unrecognized services to astronomy’ The title chosen by ACD for the leading story in the eponymous volume (1890) is, perhaps, a demonstration of his sharp sense of humour: "The Captain of the Pole Star".


Here is the dedication that is mentioned in the above passage in the front of "The Captain of The Pole Star":




He is also mentioned in this note, though its not clear what he's referring to as the Google book preview does not contain the start of this note:

for Allahabad, of which ACD would have been given a vivid account by his Southsea patient and mentor, Major-General Alfred Wilks Drayson, who had reported on its defences twenty years after the Indian Mutiny.

Additionally this extract from "Reminiscences of a Municipal Engineer" by H. Percy Boulnois, also mentions Alfred Drayson and his friendship with Arthur Conan Doyle:

Another of my personal friends was Dr. Arthur Conan Doyle, now Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the world-renowned author, and creator of Sherlock Holmes. General Drayson and I and Hugh S. Maclachlan (the then sub-editor of the Hampshire Telegraph), used often to go to Doyle's house after dinner, and, in his smoking-room, discuss all sorts of subjects, from metaphysics to more mundane matters. How well can I remember those enjoyable evenings when we settled mighty problems to our own satisfaction. I find amongst the few letters that I have preserved, one from Mr. Maclachlan, dated December 31, 1891, after I had left Portsmouth, in which he says, inter alia : " How delighted I, too, should be if there could be a repetition of those cosy, chatty smokes at which we penetrated the veil of the future, each in his own particular way. I recall Doyle's bold defiance of conventionalities, Drayson's sarcasms, and your own light keen touch on questions of morality and science. May we meet again some day with spirits just as young, and views as fresh." Maclachlan, soon after this date, became sub-editor of the London evening paper, The Star, and I saw him occasionally, but, alas, he died many years ago

Grandpa Morgan and Granny May in Malaya

Grandpa Morgan and Granny May with their staff at their rubber plantation in Malaya. Taken circa 1913.

Uncle Gary's Grave

Grave of Granny's brother Gary in Arnhem from this website.