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Jo Vellacott was a British-Canadian historian, professor, feminist, Quaker, and peace activist. She was born in Plymouth, England on 20 April 1922 to Harold F. Vellacott, a surgeon, and Josephine Sempill. She attended the University of Oxford and, after pausing her studies to work as an aircraft mechanic during the Second World War, graduated with a Master of Arts in 1947. She would then move to South Africa, where she met and married Peter Newberry in 1950. In South Africa she had two children, Mary and Douglas, before returning to the United Kingdom, where they had their daughter Susan. The family emigrated to Canada in 1955, where Peter would join the Air Force and Jo worked as a schoolteacher. She then attended the University of Toronto, where she received a Master of Arts in History in 1965, and McMaster University, where she received her PhD in 1975.

Vellacott and Peter would separate in 1976, and divorce in 1979. She took Fellowships in the United Kingdom for several years, before becoming the Scholar-in-Residence at Queen’s University in Kingston, where she then became Assistant to the Dean of Women. Following her departure from Queen’s, she worked for several years at the Simone de Beauvoir Institute at Concordia University in Montreal, retiring in 1987, and becoming an independent scholar.

Vellacott focused much of her career on women’s history, feminism, pacifism, and Quakerism. A Quaker since her 40s, she was active in the Thousand Islands Monthly Meeting near Kingston, and was a longtime peace activist. She wrote several books and dozens of articles on topics including pacifism, Bertrand Russell, women and politics, and more. She moved to Toronto, where she died in 2019.

Felicity Anne Russell (hereafter, Anne) was a granddaughter of Bertrand Russell, philosopher and peace activist, by adoption. Her adoptive father, John Conrad Russell, was Bertrand Russell’s first son from his marriage to Dora Black. Her mother, Susan Doniphan Lindsay, was the daughter of American poet Vachel Lindsay.

Anne was the child of Susan Lindsay and an unidentified father. She was born on September 2, 1945. Susan Lindsay met John Russell when Anne was an infant in 1945; in August 1946, John and Susan married, and by 1947, John had formally adopted Anne.

Anne’s family initially lived in several locations in England after her parents’ marriage, including Kilburn (with Dora Russell), St. John’s Wood in North London (with Griffin Barry, a former romantic partner of Dora Russell and the father of two of her children), a flat on Cambrian Road in Richmond, and, by 1950, the main floor of Bertrand Russell’s home in Richmond (Monk 315-317). After this last move, Anne Russell began attending Kingsmuir School, a boarding school in Sussex (Griffin 503).

In December 1952, Bertrand Russell married his fourth wife, Edith Finch, and soon after she moved into the Queen’s Road home, Anne’s parents moved out of it (Monk 355). Anne’s parents separated in 1954 and divorced by 1955 (Monk 359-360).

Thereafter, Anne and her sisters became the subjects of a protracted family custody dispute, the result of which was that Bertrand and Edith Russell won full custody of the children in 1961, with their father, John Russell, retaining visitation rights (Monk 400).

1956, Bertrand and Edith Russell moved the family to Plas Penrhyn, their home in Wales. Following this move, Anne and her sisters attended Moreton Hall, a private girls’ boarding school in Shropshire (Monk 370; Griffin 503). Near Russell’s home in Wales lived the Cooper-Willis family: mother Susan Williams-Ellis, a renowned potter; father Euan Cooper-Willis, and daughters Siân and Anwyl, who were close friends of Anne and her sisters.

Anne left Moreton Hall in 1962 (Monk 485). It is likely that she went on to complete her studies at Dartington Hall, a progressive co-educational boarding school in Devon, as her sisters Sarah and Lucy did this as well.

Little documentary evidence exists in the Russell archive about Anne’s adult life, though Ray Monk notes that she moved to New Mexico in 1975, where she has lived ever since (500).

Faith Fenton was the pseudonym of Alice Freeman, a Toronto schoolteacher. Because the journalism profession was at that time considered disreputable, Freeman took on a pseudonym, in order to keep her teaching job. She both taught school and wrote for the Northern Advance and then the Empire until 1894 when she devoted herself exclusively to journalism, becoming the editor of the Canadian Home Journal. During the Klondike Gold rush she wrote articles from the Yukon for the Toronto Globe. She married Dr. John Brown in 1900, moved back to Toronto, and continued to write.

Rutherford Smith was born on 3 November 1877 in Mount Hope, Ontario, the second son of Joel and Margaret (née Dancey) Smith. He graduated from Caledonia High School and joined his dad in their carriage building business. After his father’s death, Robert Murphy, an archaeologist, helped Smith with his collection in the 1930s. Smith became interested in archaeology after his marriage to Ethel Louise Fothergill in 1929. He enjoyed finding artifacts, researching them and then giving them away. William Cleland and his nephew J.B. Morton convinced Smith to collect artifacts for their value. His wife often helped him catalogue artifacts. He was an active collector from 1933 until 1959. He excavated 64 sites almost entirely within Wentworth County. The largest and most important site from which he collected was the Dwyer Ossuary (AiHa-3) in Beverly Township. After the completion of the dig, he stopped actively collecting. Smith’s main source of artifacts (other than digging himself) was from close friends, William Cleland and Frank Butters, and from farmers as gifts. The Smith artifact collection contains over 10,000 artifacts. The Smith artifact collection, now housed the Ethnography collection in the Department of Anthropology, was willed to McMaster University, shortly after Smith’s death on 10 October 1952 in Guelph, Ontario.

Edward Joseph Frappier (1918-2006) served in the Canadian Forces during the Second World War. A resident of Ontario, Edward Frappier served in the Royal Canadian Navy. In 1945 he served on the Flower class corvette, the HMCS Kenogami and the coastal defense vessel, the HMCS Glace Bay. The couple married in 1945. In 1947 they moved to his hometown of Sudbury. For more biographical information, consult Edward Frappier’s obituary in the Sudbury Star, dated 14 March 2006.

Bertrand Arthur William Russell, philosopher, logician, peace advocate and social reformer, was born at Trelleck in Monmouthshire on 18 May 1872, the younger son of Viscount Amberley, and the grandson of Lord John Russell, the first Earl Russell. Educated at Cambridge, Russell was a prolific author, publishing his first book, Germany Social Democracy, in 1896, quickly followed by his dissertation, An Essay on the Foundations of Geometry (1897). His principal work, Principia Mathematica, written with Alfred North Whitehead, was published in three volumes, 1910-1913. In addition to philosophy, he wrote books about education, marriage, religion, politics, and many other subjects.

He was an active campaigner against World War I, nuclear weapons, and the Vietnam war. For a time he owned and operated his own school, Beacon Hill, together with his wife, Dora Russell. He was a recipient of many awards and honours, including the Nobel Prize for Literature (1950) and the Order of Merit (1949). He married four times--Alys Pearsall Smith (m. 1894); Dora Black (m. 1921); Patricia (‘Peter’) Spence (m. 1936); and Edith Finch (m. 1952)—and had significant relationships with other women, most notably Ottoline Morrell and Constance Malleson. Russell published an Autobiography in three volumes, 1967-1969. He died at Plas Penrhyn, Merionethshire, Wales on 2 February 1970.

Christian Darnton was born in Leeds, England, on 30 October 1905 and educated at Caius College, Cambridge. He was appointed music master at Stowe School in 1929 and became the assistant editor of the Music Lover. He composed vocal and orchestral works and published one book, You and Music. He died in 1981.

Barbara Howard, artist, was born in Long Branch, Ontario in 1926. She was educated at the Ontario College of Art and St. Martin’s School in London, England. She married Richard Outram in 1957. Together they founded the Gauntlet Press in 1960 in order to publish Richard's poetry, which was illustrated by Barbara's wood engravings. Barbara died in 2002.

Major F.F. Arndoli served with 57 Battery of the Canadian Field Artillery while they were in northern Russia, 1918-1919. He went on to serve in the Second World War.

Brendan Kennelly, English professor and poet, was born in Ballylongford, county Kerry, Ireland on 17 April 1936. He was educated at Trinty College, Dublin and the University of Leeds.

Robert Kirkland Kernighan (“The Khan”) was born in 1857 and lived most of his life on Rushdale Farm, near Rockton, Ont. A farmer and a poet, he wrote for both the Hamilton Spectator and the Toronto Evening Telegram. The Spectator published his first collection of verse, The Khan’s Canticles in 1896. The Telegram published his last collection, The Khan’s Book of Verse, in 1925. Kernighan died on 4 November 1926.

John served with 1 Land Forces as a 2nd Lieutenant and was also wounded. He returned to service with the 19th Battalion and the Hampshire Regiment, where he served with distinction. When the Second World War began, John joined the Ontario Regiment, Canadian Tank Brigade, in command of the 2nd Company as a captain and served throughout the war.

Cullen served with the Queen’s Own Regiment in the first contingent. He was wounded three separate times at: St. Julien; during the Somme campaign; and at Vimy Ridge. After his convalescence he returned to the Front each time. In 1917 he was assigned to the Royal Flying Corp and was sent to Alexandria, Egypt for flight training. He died in a freak plane crash, 3 February 1918.

Slater was a barber and made parasols. He emigrated from England to Canada in 1890, settling in Hamilton, where he lived until his death, 10 November 1931.

Sgt. Major Alfred Beverley Brewer made a career in the military. He was the Sgt. Major of the 79th Field Battery of the Royal Canadian Artillery Regiment in 1932. He was chosen to be part of the Canadian Coronation Contingent (Militia Detachment) which travelled to Great Britain for the coronation of King George VI in May 1937. He served with the Royal Canadian Artillery Regiment during World War II.

Tommaso Marchesi, Italian composer, conductor and organist, was born in Lisbon on 7 March 1773. He studied with Sanislao Mattei at Bologna. In 1808 he founded the Accademia dei Filarmonica. He died in Bologna on 6 June 1852.

Thomas Sackville, first Earl of Dorset, barrister, member of parliament, and poet. Sackville was born in 1536 at Buckhurst, Surrey and perhaps educated at Hart Hall, Oxford and St. John's College, Cambridge. He became a barrister in the Inner Temple and a member of parliament, 1558-1563. In 1567 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Buckhurst, and in 1608 was created Earl of Dorset. He served as an ambassador and then lord treasurer from 1599 until his death at his desk in Whitehall, London, 19 April 1608. Sackville was also an accomplished poet.

Luís de Almeida Portugal Soares de Alarcão d'Eça e Melo Silva Mascarenhas, 2nd Marquess of Lavradio was the 11th Viceroy of the Portuguese colony of Brazil, the second one that ruled the colony after the seat of government moved to Rio de Janeiro. He was the son of a Marquis of the same title, D. António de Almeida Soares e Portugal and his wife, D. Francisca das Chagas Mascarenhas. During the 1762 Spanish invasion of Portugal, he commanded the 1st Cascais Infantry Regiment.