[Source - Benathi Marufu for FHYA, 2022 using wikipedia: Alfred Wilks Drayson 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. He graduated in 1846 at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. Commissioned, he then served in the Seventh Xhosa War. 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. He was in India around 1877, and was based at Halifax, Nova Scotia for five years. 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. He retired from the army as a major-general in 1883, and became president of the Portsmouth Literary and Scientific Society.]