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Elizabeth Gwillim, gentlewoman, author and artist, was baptized on 22 September 1762 in Aldwincle, England according to the Dictionary of Canadian Biography. She married John Graves Simcoe on 30 December 1782, at the age of twenty, if the date of birth given by the DCB is correct. From 1791 to 1796 she lived with her husband in Upper Canada as he served out his term as Lieutenant Governor. While there she kept diaries and painted water colours of Canadian scenes. Her writings were published as The Diary of Mrs. John Graves Simcoe in 1911. She died at Wolford Lodge near Honiton, England on 17 January 1850.

C.T. Atkinson held the rank of Captain with the Oxford University Officers Training Corps, and served in the Seventh Division which was created in the autumn of 1914, and ceased to exist in the winter of 1918, after its demobilization in December. Its units were assembled from home stations, from Gibralter, Malta, Egypt and included the regulars remaining in England after the departure for France of the Sixth Division in 1907. In 1926, C.T. Atkinson undertook the writing of the history of the Seventh Division, which was published in 1927, under the title The Seventh Division 1914-1918. by John Murray.

During the First World War Marion S. Simpson of Hamilton, Ont. wrote letters of encouragement and sent parcels, mainly socks, to Canadian soldiers overseas.

William Fingland was born in Beverly Township, Ontario on 19 September 1885. Fingland was a student, likely at Knox College, at the time he enlisted in May 1915. Upon arriving in Europe, after his voyage over on the Megantic, Fingland sent a telegram to his sweetheart, later wife, [Jan]Etta McDiarmid. Once in England, Fingland began his work on behalf of the YMCA. He organized sport days, religious services, recreation activities and entertainment, including a moving picture show for troops just behind the line in Belgium and France. He visited soldiers in hospital, censored letters and dealt with the excesses of the soldiers around him. He witnessed first hand the devastation in Ypres. Fingland was involved with visiting the Canadian Forestry Camps and working with the Khaki University (College), in both London and Edinburgh, which helped to provide men on leave with places to stay, educational courses and recreational activities. Khaki University promoted education and arranged literary and historical lectures in London and France. The most popular courses with the troops involved agriculture. Fingland oversaw the Beaver Hut in 1919, a large YMCA tent for Canadian troops, and participated in a visit to the area by the Prince of Wales and Prince Albert. William and Etta were married in 1920.

Wallace Balfour Brett was born in Markdale, Ontario on 16 May 1895. Brett had been a farmer prior to enlisting in Canadian Over-Seas Expeditionary Force in January 1917. Brett was a member of the 4th Company of the 8th Battalion. Brett was killed in action on 21 August 1918. He is buried in the Daours Communal Cemetery, 10 kilometers east of Amiens.

John Terpstra was born in Brockville, Ontario in 1953 and moved to Edmonton as a child. He has spent most of his life in Hamilton, Ontario. Terpstra was educated at Trinity Christian College in Chicago and the University of Toronto. He has published several books of poetry including the Governor-General Literary Awards’ nominee, Disarmament (2003). His prose works include The Boys, or Waiting for the Electrician’s Daughter (2005) which was a finalist for the Charles Taylor Prize and Falling into Place (2002). His selected poetry has been collected in Two or Three Guitars (2006).

Lloyd J. Montgomery was a Leading Seaman on board the HMCS Iroquois during the Second World War. He kept a small diary detailing the ship’s duties as part of the dangerous Murmansk Run, which took supplies to the Soviet Union.

The U.S. Base Hospital was established by the University of Pennsylvania under the direction of the American Red Cross. It was mobilized in November 1917. Nurses were ordered to report to Ellis Island in February 1918. In April 1918 the nurses left Ellis Island and were joined with the officers and men from Camp Merrit on the USS Leviathan. They arrived in Brest, France on 2 May 1918. From there they went to Chatel Guyon where Base Hospital 20 was set up.

Mrs. Bromley's husband served with Canadian forces in France during World War I. She received a letter from Sister E.B. Burpee, No. 1 Canadian General Hospital in France, 5 August 1917, informing her that her husband has "absorbed some of this terrible gas poison" and that he is seriously ill.

Lance Corporal Thomas Richard Phillips enlisted in August 1929 and served with the Welsh Guards throughout the Second World War. He married his wife, Eileen, in January of 1940 and they had a son, William Victor, two years later. Following the war he remained with the military.

Marmaduke Archer, his wife, and his son James emigrated from the United Kingdom to the United States in1850, settling in Wisconsin.

Clifford Bax, critic, editor, and playwright, was born on 13 July 1886 in Knightsbridge, London. He was educated at the Slade and then the Heatherly Art Schools, finishing his education in Germany. He founded the Phoenix Society (1919-1926) to revive important Elizabethan and Restoration dramas. His first play to be staged was The Poetasters of Ispahan in 1912 and his plays continued to be staged regularly until 1946. Bax died on 18 November 1962.

Harry Somers, composer, pianist, and broadcaster, was born in Toronto on 11 September 1925 and studied at the Toronto Conservatory from 1942 to 1949. He composed orchestral, choral and vocal works, as well as music for film, television and the stage. In the 1960s he became a broadcaster with CBC radio and television programmes about music. He received three honorary doctorates and was made a Companion of the Order of Canada in 1972. He died on 9 March 1999.

Percy Thomas Caiger was born on 3 November 1889 and entered the Post Office as a boy clerk in 1905. He became a career Civil Servant, retiring as Staff Officer with the Ministry of Food in 1947. During World War I he served as a Sergeant with the 60th (London) Divisional Cyclist Co. He was a founding member and Hon. Secretary of the Old Comrades' Association. He died on 27 February 1953.

L/Cpl. Eric Caiger served in the Royal Suffolk Regiment of Great Britain during World War II.

During the course of researching his Ph.D thesis (“International Influences on the Anti-Vietnam War Movement in Canada, 1965-1975”) at the University of New Brunswick, Christopher Powell conducted interviews with a number of individuals who had been active in the protest movement against the Vietnam War during the mid-to-late 1960s . These included both Americans and Canadians; all were resident in Canada during the conflict. Many were involved with broader political and labour movements. The interviews themselves centred on participants’ anti-war activities, but also touch on broader political and biographical themes. Upon completion of his thesis, Dr. Powell donated the interviews and accompanying transcripts to McMaster University.

Members of Local 7062 are employees of Otis Elevator.

Local 205 received its charter on 27 June 1900 from the Brotherhood of Painters and Decorators of America. Meetings to organize the local began in August 1899, after the failure of Local 27. Members of Local 205 work for a variety of different contractors. This history of Local 205 has been written in two-coil bound, mimeographed books. The first one is located with the fonds and was written by George McMenemy. The second book has been catalogued for Archives and Research Collections. The International Brotherhood of Painter and Allied Trades officially changed its name to International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, in August, 1999, to better reflect its membership of men and women.

Hans von Bülow, conductor and pianist, was born in Dresden, Germany on 8 January 1830. He studied both music and law, the latter in Leipzig. In 1851 he gave up law and went to Weimar to study piano under Franz Liszt (1811-1866). He married Liszt's daughter Cosima in 1857. Von Bülow toured as a pianist and also taught at the Stern and Marx conservatories in Berlin. In 1864 he became the conductor of the Court Opera in Munich, followed in 1867 by his appointment as director of the music conservatory there. From 1850-1855 he was Hoftmusikdirektor to the Duke of Meiningen. Von Bülow also composed some piano works and orchestral music. He died in Cairo on 12 February 1894.

Oliver Ridsdale Baldwin, 2nd Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, was born in 1899. An author and journalist, he was sometime Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for War and served as Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Leeward Islands, 1948-1950. He was also a Member of Parliament representing Dudley in 1929-1931 and Paisley 1945-1947. He died in 1958 and was succeeded by his brother.