Alfred Wilks Drayson

Alfred Wilks Drayson (also Wilkes) (1827–1901) was an English army officer, writer and astronomer. He was a personal friend of Arthur Conan Doyle, who dedicated to him the short story collection The Captain of the Polestar.^[1]

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.^[2][3][4][5] 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.^[6][7][8][9] Another sister, Louisa, married Samuel Burdon Ellis as his second wife, and was mother of Alfred Burdon Ellis.^[10] The fourth surviving daughter, Helen Matilda, married Charles Davies in 1848.^[11] Further sisters were Emily (1811–1894), who married William Woods (died 1856) of Woolwich Dockyard; and Laurette, christened 1819.^[5][12][13]

The second son of the family was Henry Edwin Drayson, in partnership at Faversham to 1843 with Frederick Drayson, as civil engineers and surveyors.^[14][15] He later visited Lammot du Pont I in the USA.^[16]

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.^[17] 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 He was then withdrawn, after an attack of scarlet fever, spending time as a convalescent with his elder brother, a civil engineer.^[18]

Drayson graduated in 1846 at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich.^[1] Commissioned, he then served in the Seventh Xhosa War.^[9] He rose through the ranks of the Royal Artillery, being promoted captain in 1854, on his return from South Africa; major in 1868; lieutenant-colonel in 1869, and colonel in 1874.^[18][19] He was in India around 1877, and was based at Halifax, Nova Scotia for five years.^[1][18][20]

 

Group of Woolwich instructors, 1869, with Alfred Wilks Drayson on the extreme right

From 1858 to 1873 Drayson was on the Military Topography staff at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, serving as Professor of Surveying and Topographical Drawing.^[21][22] He retired from the army in 1883 with the honorary rank of major-general,^[23] and became president of the Portsmouth Literary and Scientific Society.^[9][24]

Drayston died in Portsmouth on 27 September 1901.^[2]

Interests

A member of White's Club, Drayson played billiards and related games including pyramid pool.^[25] He was a reputed player of whist, and an author on a well-known book on the subject.^[26]

Spiritualism

Drayson attended a séance with the medium Annie Andrews in 1857, and she claimed to put him in touch with his dead brother. It was the start of a long series of such meetings.^[27] In 1862 Drayson met Georgina Cowper through Andrews.^[28] In 1864 Drayson and Andrews assisted the medium Mrs. Mary Marshall at a séance attended by John Ruskin. It was held at the home of Mrs Makdougal Gregory, widow of William Gregory.^[29] More than one séance at this time involved Drayson and Ruskin; at the first, the homeopath John Rutherford Russell was also present. Drayson in May 1864 saw Ruskin and the Cowpers socially.^[30] He investigated the supposed haunted Clamps-in-the-Wood, Staffordshire, prompted by a story of a friend, William Howitt.^[31]

Elisabeth Nichol also sat as a medium for Drayson, in 1867;^[32] and he was a member of the Spiritual Athenæum of Daniel Dunglas Home, whose séances he had attended, set up in that year.^[33][34] He joined the British National Association of Spiritualists, shortly after its founding in 1873.^[35] He showed spirit photographs in 1874 at Broadlands, clashing there with the sceptic John Morley.^[36] He was a member of the Society for Psychical Research,^[37] and was brought onto the council of the London Spiritualist Alliance by the autocratic Stainton Moses.^[38]

In 1882 Drayson was living in Southsea, and in subsequent years investigated psychic phenomena there, with Conan Doyle.^[39] He also introduced Conan Doyle to theosophy^[40] and to Alfred Percy Sinnett.^[41] Conan Doyle later reported, in his History of Spiritualism, the claim that Drayson in the 1880s was receiving a large number of apports through a medium.^[42] He retained a sceptical view of this claim, being more convinced by other aspects of Drayson's spiritualism.^[43]

Astronomy and Earth science

Drayson published scientific theories, not accepted by later authors. These included discussion of the obliquity of the ecliptic. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1868.^[1] While related ideas were put forward by Thomas Belt, the theoretical basis for large tilts in the Earth's axis was undermined by 1880, with work of George Darwin.^[44]

In 1884, in the weekly Light: A Journal of Psychical, Occult, and Mystical Research, he published a paper The Solution of Scientific Problems by Spirits on the moons of Uranus, relating a conclusion given by a medium in a séance of 1858.^[45] It was later contested by Camille Flammarion.^[46]

After Drayson's death, his views were defended by Algernon Frederick Rous de Horsey in Draysonia (1911), and others.^[47]

Works

 

Illustration by Harrison Weir from Sporting Scenes amongst the Kaffirs of South Africa (1858)

Drayson published:

• Sporting Scenes amongst the Kaffirs of South Africa (1858)^[48]
• The Earth We Inhabit: its past, present, and probable future (1859), put forward an expanding Earth theory.^[49][50] Some background is given by Augustus De Morgan in his Budget of Paradoxes, including the prospect of telegraph cables breaking.^[51] Such breaks were known with Atlantic cables, but are now attributed to underwater mudslides. A contemporary with a related theory was William Lowthian Green.^[52]
• Great Britain has been and will be again within the Tropics (1859), introduced his "second rotation" theory.^[53][54] The Eclectic Review called the book "pseudo-science".^[55]
• Practical Military Surveying and Sketching (1861)^[56]
• Tales at the Outspan (1862)^[57]
• The Common Sights in the Heavens (1862)^[58]
• The Young Dragoon; or, Every day life of a soldier, by one who has served (1870, anonymous)^[59][60]
• On the Cause, Date, and Duration of the Last Glacial Epoch of Geology, and the Probable Antiquity of Man: With an Investigation and Description of a New Movement of the Earth (1873), postulated a 30,000 year cycle with large variation of the Earth's axial tilt.^[61][62]
• The Cause of the supposed Proper Motion of the Fixed Stars and an explanation of the Apparent Acceleration of the Moon's Mean Motion (1874)^[63]
• The Gentleman Cadet: His Career and Adventures at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich (1875)^[64]
• Among the Zulus: The Adventures of Hans Sterk, South African Hunter and Pioneer (1879)^[57]
• Experiences of a Woolwich Professor (1886), includes views on phrenology^[65]
• The Art of Practical Whist (1886)^[66]
• "The White Chief of the Umzimvubu Caffres" from Everyboy's Annual, in book form The White Chief of the Caffres (1887), was paraphrased by Mervyn Peake as part of an early story, published in Peake's Progress (1979).^[67][68]
• Thirty Thousand Years of the Earth's Past History Read by Aid of the Discovery of the Second Rotation of the Earth (1888)^[69]
• From Keeper to Captain: Being the Adventures of G. Cooperson During his Career in the Dragoons (1889)^[70]
• The Diamond Hunters of South Africa (1889), illustrations by Arnold W. Cooper.^[57][71]
• The Art of Practical Billiards for Amateurs (1889)^[72]
• Untrodden Ground in Astronomy and Geology (1890), returned to Drayson's "second rotation" theory, and influenced A Journey in Other Worlds of 1894.^[73][74]

Drayson also contributed to the Boy's Own Paper.^[75]

Patents

Drayson was granted, with Charles Richard Binney, an 1858 patent for improvements to underwater telegraph cables.^[76][77] The invention, the "Elongating Tunnel Marine Telegraph", was a helical wire in india rubber, to protect against longitudinal strain.^[78] In 1868 he was granted one for "an improved mode of and apparatus for cooling wort and other liquids".^[79] He proposed to use carbon disulphide, rather than water, for rapid cooling.^[80]

In literature

Conan Doyle's villain Professor Moriarty has been considered a compound of Drayson, Adam Worth and the forger James Seward.^[81] Schaefer, who sees Simon Newcomb as a model for Moriarty, argues that the link from Conan Doyle to Newcomb runs through Drayson and Newcomb's formula on axial tilt, Drayson resenting Newcomb's lack of interest in his own work on the subject; and he regards Drayson as a model for Colonel Moran.^[82]

Family

Drayson married in 1852 Mary Catherine Preece, fourth daughter of Richard Matthias Preece, and elder sister of William Henry Preece.^[83][84] Their elder daughter Ellen Mary Isabel married in 1881 Alfred Edward Wrottesley, son of Edward Bennet Wrottesley, and grandson of Sir John Wrottesley, 1st Baron Wrottesley.^[85]

Notes

1. James O'Brien (28 February 2013). The Scientific Sherlock Holmes: Cracking the Case with Science and Forensics. OUP USA. p. 146. ISBN 978-0-19-979496-6.
2. Appleton's Annual Cyclopedia and Register of Important Events of the Year 1901. D. Appleton & Company. 1902. p. 489.
3. David R. Beasley (2004). The Canadian Don Quixote: The Life and Works of Major John Richardson, Canada's First Novelist. David Beasley. p. 77. ISBN 978-0-915317-18-9.
4. Finance Account of the United Kingdom in Eight Classes, for the Year 1851. 1832. p. 37.
5. (PDF). pp. 13–14. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 January 2015.
6. "Caroline Agnes Drayson, Author Information At the Circulating Library". Retrieved 7 May 2017.
7. David R. Beasley (2004). The Canadian Don Quixote: The Life and Works of Major John Richardson, Canada's First Novelist. David Beasley. p. 313 note 15. ISBN 978-0-915317-18-9.
8. American Vital Records from the Gentleman's Magazine, 1731-1868. Genealogical Publishing Com. 1987. p. 238. ISBN 978-0-8063-1177-7.
9. "1902MNRAS..62R.241. Page 241". Harvard University. Retrieved 7 May 2017.
10. Stewart Marsh Ellis (1920). George Meredith: His Life and Friends in Relation to His Work. Ardent Media. p. 215. GGKEY:5Y96JHF61J0.
11. The Law Times. Office of The Law times. 1848. p. 426.
12. Sylvanus Urban, ed. (1856). The Gentleman's Magazine. p. 664.
13. "England, Essex Parish Registers, 1538-1997," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XK8M-358 : 12 December 2014), Laurette Drayson, 11 Jun 1819, Christening; citing Waltham-Abbey, Essex, England, Record Office, Chelmsford; FHL microfilm 1,526,972.
14. Gentleman's Magazine, Or Monthly Intelligencer. Edward Cave. 1844. p. 88.
15. Great Britain (1844). The London Gazette. T. Neuman. p. 1040.
16. Norman B. Wilkinson (1984). Lammot du Pont and the American explosives industry, 1850–1884. Published for the Eleutherian Mills-Hagley Foundation by the University Press of Virginia. p. 43. ISBN 978-0-8139-1012-3.
17. David R. Beasley (2004). The Canadian Don Quixote: The Life and Works of Major John Richardson, Canada's First Novelist. David Beasley. p. 130. ISBN 978-0-915317-18-9.
18. Butler, William Mill (1899). "Drayson, Alfred Wilkes, The Whist Reference Book". Philadelphia: John C. Yorston Company. pp. 122–4. Retrieved 16 May 2017 – via HathiTrust Digital Library.
19. The New Annual Army List, Militia List, and Yeomanry Cavalry List. J. Murray. 1875. p. 44.
20. Arthur Conan Doyle (1 June 2000). The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. OUP Oxford. p. 306. ISBN 978-0-19-283811-7.
21. Guggisberg, Frederick Gordon (1900). ""The Shop;" the story of the Royal Military Academy". Internet Archive. London, New York: Cassell & Co. p. 262. Retrieved 20 May 2017.
22. Karen Hunger Parshall (29 March 2006). James Joseph Sylvester: Jewish Mathematician in a Victorian World. JHU Press. p. 155. ISBN 978-0-8018-8291-3.
23. "No. 25291". The London Gazette. 27 November 1883. p. 5856.
24. Christopher Redmond (19 December 2016). Lives Beyond Baker Street: A Biographical Dictionary of Sherlock Holmes's Contemporaries. Andrews UK Limited. p. 82. ISBN 978-1-78092-908-8.
25. Edward Cecil Baker (1 January 1976). Sir William Preece, F.R.S.: Victorian Engineer Extraordinary. Hutchinson. pp. 35–6. ISBN 978-0-09-126610-3.
26. John Ruskin (1990). Christmas Story: John Ruskin's Venetian Letters of 1876–1877. University of Delaware Press. p. 43. ISBN 978-0-87413-373-8.
27. John Ruskin (1990). Christmas Story: John Ruskin's Venetian Letters of 1876-1877. University of Delaware Press. p. 33. ISBN 978-0-87413-373-8.
28. James Gregory (30 November 2009). Reformers, Patrons and Philanthropists: The Cowper-Temples and High Politics in Victorian England. I.B.Tauris. p. 99. ISBN 978-0-85771-625-5.
29. Timothy Hilton (2002). John Ruskin. Yale University Press. p. 350. ISBN 978-0-300-09099-4.
30. James Gregory (30 November 2009). Reformers, Patrons and Philanthropists: The Cowper-Temples and High Politics in Victorian England. I.B.Tauris. p. 102. ISBN 978-0-85771-625-5.
31. Anna Mary Howitt Watts (27 January 2011). Pioneers of the Spiritual Reformation: Biographical Sketches. Cambridge University Press. p. 289. ISBN 978-1-108-02594-2.
32. John Ruskin (1990). Christmas Story: John Ruskin's Venetian Letters of 1876-1877. University of Delaware Press. p. 63. ISBN 978-0-87413-373-8.
33. Daniel Dunglas Home (10 March 2011). Incidents in My Life: Second Series. Cambridge University Press. p. 144. ISBN 978-1-108-02595-9.
34. Dunglas Home; Madame Dunglas Home (27 January 2011). D. D. Home: His Life and Mission. Cambridge University Press. p. 251. ISBN 978-1-108-02565-2.
35. Christopher Redmond (28 September 2009). Sherlock Holmes Handbook: Second Edition. Dundurn. p. 127. ISBN 978-1-4597-1898-2.
36. James Gregory (30 November 2009). Reformers, Patrons and Philanthropists: The Cowper-Temples and High Politics in Victorian England. I.B.Tauris. p. 128. ISBN 978-0-85771-625-5.
37. Sabine Vanacker; Catherine Wynne (13 November 2012). Sherlock Holmes and Conan Doyle: Multi-Media Afterlives. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 142. ISBN 978-0-230-30050-7.
38. Janet Oppenheim (26 February 1988). The Other World: Spiritualism and Psychical Research in England, 1850-1914. Cambridge University Press. p. 57. ISBN 978-0-521-34767-9.
39. M. C. Rintoul (5 March 2014). Dictionary of Real People and Places in Fiction. Routledge. p. 373. ISBN 978-1-136-11932-3.
40. Andrew Norman (26 December 2010). Arthur Conan Doyle: The Man Behind Sherlock Holmes. History Press. p. 14. ISBN 978-0-7524-6253-0.
41. Bernd Stiegler (26 June 2014). Spuren, Elfen und andere Erscheinungen: Conan Doyle und die Photographie (in German). Fischer E-Books. p. 174. ISBN 978-3-10-402972-6.
42. Arthur Conan Doyle, Sir (5 November 2008). The History of Spiritualism (Volume 2 of 2 ) (EasyRead Super Large 18pt ed.). ReadHowYouWant.com. p. 302. ISBN 978-1-4270-8172-8.
43. Daniel Stashower (11 February 2014). Teller of Tales: The Life of Arthur Conan Doyle. Henry Holt and Company. p. 119. ISBN 978-1-4668-6315-6.
44. Richard J. Huggett (6 December 2012). Climate, Earth Processes and Earth History. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 72. ISBN 978-3-642-76268-0.
45. Oscar González-Quevedo (1992). Os mortos interferem no mundo?: tratado em cinco volumes (in Portuguese). Edicoes Loyola. p. 250. ISBN 978-85-15-00273-3.
46. Camille Flammarion (1907). Mysterious Psychic Forces: An Account of the Author's Investigations in Psychical Research, Together with Those of Other European Savants. Library of Alexandria. p. 60. ISBN 978-1-4655-2465-2.
47. Martin Gardner (4 May 2012). Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science. Courier Corporation. p. 52. ISBN 978-0-486-13162-7.
48. Best Books on (1940). Hampton Institute: Hampton, VA a Classified Catalog of the Negro Collection in the Collis P. Huntington Library. Best Books on. p. 11. ISBN 978-1-62376-066-3.
49. Alfred Wilks Drayson (1859). The Earth We Inhabit: its past, present, and probable future.
50. Samuel Warren Carey (1988). Theories of the Earth and Universe: A History of Dogma in the Earth Sciences. Stanford University Press. pp. 137–8. ISBN 978-0-8047-1364-1.
51. s:Budget of Paradoxes/L
52. Samuel Warren Carey (1988). Theories of the Earth and Universe: A History of Dogma in the Earth Sciences. Stanford University Press. p. 138. ISBN 978-0-8047-1364-1.
53. Alfred Wilks Drayson (1859). Great Britain has been and will be again within the Tropics.
54. Susan B. Martinez, Ph.D. (2 April 2015). Delusions in Science and Spirituality: The Fall of the Standard Model and the Rise of Knowledge from Unseen Worlds. Inner Traditions/Bear. p. 109. ISBN 978-1-59143-779-6.
55. Samuel Greatheed; Daniel Parken; Theophilus Williams; Josiah Conder; Thomas Price; Jonathan Edwards Ryland; Edwin Paxton Hood (1859). The Eclectic Review. C. Taylor. p. 667.
56. Alfred Wilks Drayson (1861). Practical Military Surveying and Sketching. Chapman & Hall.
57. Gareth Cornwell; Dirk Klopper; Craig MacKenzie (2010). The Columbia Guide to South African Literature in English Since 1945. Columbia University Press. p. 208. ISBN 978-0-231-13046-2.
58. Alfred Wilks Drayson (1862). The Common Sights in the Heavens. Chapman and Hall. Bibcode:1862cshe.book.....D.
59. Drayson, Alfred Wilks (1870). The Young Dragoon; or, Every day life of a soldier, by one who has served (capt. Drayson).
60. Alfred Drayson (21 April 2017). The Young Dragoon: Every Day Life of a Soldier. ЛитРес. ISBN 978-5-04-051891-3.
61. Alfred Wilks Drayson (1873). On the Cause, Date, and Duration of the Last Glacial Epoch of Geology, and the Probable Antiquity of Man: With an Investigation and Description of a New Movement of the Earth. Chapman & Hall.
62. Trevor Palmer (12 June 2003). Perilous Planet Earth: Catastrophes and Catastrophism Through the Ages. Cambridge University Press. p. 59. ISBN 978-0-521-81928-2.
63. Alfred Wilks Drayson (1874). The Cause of the supposed Proper Motion of the Fixed Stars and an explanation of the Apparent Acceleration of the Moon's Mean Motion: with other geometrical problems in astronomy hitherto unsolved. Chapman and Hall.
64. Alfred Wilks Drayson (1875). The Gentleman Cadet: His Career and Adventures at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich : a Tale of the Past. Griffith and Farran.
65. "Spectator Archive, 2 April 1887, Page 23 Experiences of a Woolwich Professor. By Major-General A. W. Drayson". The Spectator. Retrieved 20 May 2017.
66. "Drayson, Alfred Wilkes, 1827–1901, The Online Books Page". Retrieved 7 May 2017.
67. Donald R. Hettinga; Gary D. Schmidt (1996). British Children's Writers, 1914–1960. Gale Research. p. 209.
68. David Attwell; Derek Attridge (12 January 2012). The Cambridge History of South African Literature. Cambridge University Press. p. 345. ISBN 978-1-316-17513-2.
69. Alfred Wilks Drayson (1888). Thirty Thousand Years of the Earth's Past History Read by Aid of the Discovery of the Second Rotation of the Earth. Chapman and Hall.
70. "Alfred Wilks Drayson (1827–1901), Author Information At the Circulating Library". Retrieved 20 May 2017.
71. "S2A3 Biographical Database of Southern African Science, Cooper, Mr Arnold W". Retrieved 8 May 2017.
72. Alfred Wilks Drayson (1889). The Art of Practical Billiards for Amateurs. G. Bell.
73. Alfred Wilks Drayson (1890). Untrodden Ground in Astronomy and Geology: Giving Further Details of the Second Rotation of the Earth and of the Important Calculations which Can be Made by Aid of a Knowledge Thereof. K. Paul, Trench, Trübner & Company, Limited.
74. John Wilson Foster (1 January 2002). The Age of Titanic: Cross-currents in Anglo-American Culture. Merlin Pub. p. 147. ISBN 978-1-903582-37-4.
75. Dave Thompson (1 January 2014). Sherlock Holmes FAQ: All That's Left to Know About the World's Greatest Private Detective. Applause Theatre & Cinema Books. p. 33. ISBN 978-1-4803-8615-0.
76. "Alfred Wilks Drayson - Graces Guide". Retrieved 7 May 2017.
77. Alfred Wilks Drayson; Charles Richard Binney (1858). Description of the patent Elongating Tunnel Telegraph Cable ... with reasons for the failure of the present Atlantic Cable ... Illustrated with a chromo-lithograph.
78. Charles Bright (20 March 2014). Submarine Telegraphs. Cambridge University Press. p. 215 note. ISBN 978-1-108-06948-9.
79. The Engineer. Morgan-Grampian (Publishers). 1868. p. 451.
80. The Student and Intellectual Observer of Science, Literature and Art. 1870. p. 72.
81. Molly Carr (22 November 2011). In Search of Dr Watson. Andrews UK Limited. pp. 16–7. ISBN 978-1-78092-033-7.
82. Schaefer, B. E., Sherlock Holmes and some astronomical connections, Journal of the British Astronomical Association, vol. 103, no.1, p.30–34, 1993JBAA..103...30S http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/full/seri/JBAA./0103//0000033.000.html
83. Edward Cecil Baker (1 January 1976). Sir William Preece, F.R.S.: Victorian Engineer Extraordinary. Hutchinson. p. 31. ISBN 978-0-09-126610-3.
84. The Gentleman's Magazine. W. Pickering. 1852. p. 512.
85. Burke, Bernard (1903). Ashworth P. Burke (ed.). A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage, the Privy Council, Knightage and Companionage (65th ed.). London: Harrison and Sons. p. 1623.

External links

• Works by Alfred Wilks Drayson at Project Gutenberg
• Online Books page