Alfred Wilks Drayson

Alfred Wilks Drayson (also Wilkes) (1827–1901) was an English army officer, author and astronomer. He was a personal friend of Arthur Conan Doyle, who dedicated to him the short story collection The Captain of the Polestar. Background Born 17 April 1827, he was one of a large family, son of William Drayson who worked at the Royal Gunpowder Factory, and was Clerk of the Works there in 1832, and his wife Ann Marie. He was a younger brother of the novelist Caroline Agnes Drayson, and brother-in-law of the novelist John Richardson who married the second daughter Maria Caroline, and was born at Waltham Abbey where the factory was located. Another sister, Louisa, married Samuel Burdon Ellis as his second wife, and was mother of Alfred Burdon Ellis. The fourth surviving daughter, Helen Matilda, married Charles Davies in 1848. Further sisters were Emily (1811–1894), who married William Woods (died 1856) of Woolwich Dockyard; and Laurette, christened 1819. The second son of the family was Henry Edwin Drayson, in partnership at Faversham to 1843 with Frederick Drayson, as civil engineers and surveyors. He later visited Lammot du Pont I in the USA. Life and career The family home, which had been at Chatham since 1835 when William Drayson retired, broke up in 1837 when Ann Marie died. Alfred Drayson was educated at Rochester Grammar School from age 11, for two years. He was then withdrawn, after an attack of scarlet fever, spending time as a convalescent with his elder brother, a civil engineer.