Alfred W. DraysonErnest Wilks Drayson, also known as Wilkes, was an English army officer, author, and astronomer who lived from 1827 to 1901. His friend Arthur Conan Doyle gave the collection of short stories called "The Captain of the Polestar" to him as a gift. He as born on April 17, 1827, into a big family. His father, William Drayson, worked at the Royal Gunpowder Factory and was Clerk of the Works there in 1832. His mother, Ann Marie, was also a worker there. He was younger brother of author Caroline Agnes Drayson and brother-in-law of author John Richardson, who married the second daughter, Maria Caroline. He was born at Waltham Abbey, which was also where the factory was based. Louisa Burdon Ellis was another sister who married Samuel Burdon Ellis and had a child with him. Helen Matilda, the fourth daughter who lived, married Charles Davies in 1848. Emily (1811–1894), who married Woolwich Dockyard worker William Woods (died 1856), was another sister. Laurette, who was born in 1819, was another sister. The family home had been in Chatham since 1835, when William Drayson retired. When Ann Marie died in 1837, the family home fell apart. Alfred Drayson went to Rochester Grammar School from the time he was 11 years old for two years. After a bout of scarlet fever, he was kicked out and sent to stay with his older brother, a civil engineer, to recover. Read More Read Less