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Rose Eizenstraus was born in 1913. Her parents were socialist atheists, and she was raised in the Toronto Jewish community. At an early age, she became involved in the Young Pioneers. In 1939, she was Tim Buck’s private secretary. Rose was one of the founding members of the New Theatre Group in Montreal. In Toronto, she was involved in the Belmont Theatre Group and the Theatre of Action. She performed in the notorious play, Eight Men Speak, in the role of Zelda, during its sole performance at Toronto’s Standard Theatre on December 4, 1933.

Rose was the wife of Dave Kashtan.

Sam Lipshitz was born on 14 February 1910 in Radom, Poland. He was sent to live with an aunt in Montreal at age 17, where he joined the Jewish Cultural Club of Montreal. He joined the Young Communist League while working at the Jewish Public Library. He was dismissed from the library following the 1929 Hebron Massacre because he aligned himself with the Soviet interpretation of the event. He married Manya Lipshitz on 20 January 1930 and they settled in Toronto. He became editor of Der Kamf (later renamed Vochenblatt) in 1932. He was appointed secretary of the party’s Anti-Fascist Committee in 1933, became head of the Jewish National Committee and sat on the Party’s Central Committee from 1943 to 1946. He was arrested and briefly detained in the Don Jail with Tim Buck and fourteen other party leaders in 1942. He joined the executive of the Canadian Jewish Congress in 1943. Through the Congress, he was sent to Poland in 1945 to report on the condition of Jews in the aftermath of the Holocaust. He and Manya visited the USSR in 1956 and shortly following their return, they resigned from the Communist Party. Sam went on to a career as an editor, author, and printer.

Stewart Smith was born in Portage La Prairie, Manitoba. His father, A.E. Smith, was a social gospel church minister in Brandon and leader of the Winnipeg General Strike in 1919. In 1923, Stewart moved to Toronto and began organizing. The following year he accepted an offer from the CPC to become the National Secretary of the Young Communist League. In 1926, he attended the Lenin School in Moscow and was later appointed to the Political Bureau of the CPC. In 1937, he was elected alderman on the Toronto City Council as the first communist elected to office in Toronto’s history. In 1946, he was elected to the Board of Control. Stewart was a prominent member of the Labor-Progressive Party of Ontario and served as party leader between 1951 and 1957. He resigned from the Communist Party of Canada in 1957.

Ruthven Colquhoun McNairn served in the Second World War with the Algonquin Regiment. Born in Toronto on 24 August 1914, to William Harvey McNairn, a professor at McMaster University and Hester (Wilson) McNairn. He was the third of four brothers, with Robert and Norman proceeding him, and Ian following. The family relocated to Hamilton in 1930 when the University did.

In February 1933, after finishing high school, McNairn hitchhiked to travel to California and travelling around before being jailed on a charge of vagrancy. His father bailed him out and McNairn made his way home by June.

He began his studies at McMaster University, beginning in Mathematics and Physics, and then transferring to General Arts. He enjoyed being part of the Dramatic Society and appeared in a number of plays. He also was part of the literary society. He graduated in 1938, and did some more travelling before returning to Hamilton.

On 1 November 1940, he began military training with McMaster’s COTC and part time militia with the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. He completed his training in 1941 and hoped to join the Navy, which his younger brother also hoped to join. With no offers forthcoming, he formally enlisted 11 May 1942, and was sent for training at Gordon Head, BC. He would join the Algonquin Regiment in 1943 and shipped to Europe in early summer.

He was part of the operation to attempt to closed the ‘Falaise Gap’ and would then carry on towards Belgium, the Netherlands, and finally into Germany. Throughout this time he kept his own diary, as well as helping to write the regiment’s war diary when the official diarists were busy. He would carry on this work and though he died before the official history was published, he is credited with doing much of the work on Warpath.

Returning home, McNairn had aspirations of writing, either as a journalist or in longer form. Unfortunately, in June 1946, he was diagnosed with an especially virulent form of TB, tuberculous empyema. Likely contracted while still in Europe, he was transferred to Hamilton’s Mountain Sanatorium for care, but would never recover. McNairn died 5 September 1946 and was buried in Grove Cemetery, in Dundas.

Rachel Lili Gerstenzang, known as Lili, was born on July 25, 1918 in Harbin, China. Her father, Aaron Tunik was a businessman in the Export Import business. Her mother was Raisa Tunik, née Levin.

Lili Gerstenzang moved to Tientsin in 1921, where she was educated at the British Tienstin Grammar School until 1933. The family moved to Shanghai, where she attended the Shanghai Public School for Girls. She was active in entering art contests and won notable mention in local newspapers.

She married Leon Gerstenzang in 1938. With her husband, Leon Gerstenzang, she left northern China upon the Chinese Communist occupation. They moved to Hong Kong in July 1949.

They moved to Sydney, Australia and lived there from Nov 1950 to Feb 1953. Lili Gerstenzang attended the East Sydney Technical College, studying Art from 1950 to 1952 and moved to Toronto, Canada in late 1952, becoming and immigrant in 1953. Lili Gerstenzang attended the Ontario College of Art from 1955 to 1956 and 1963-1964.

She died 9 February 2019.

Moseley Stephen Scarlett was a Toronto-based musician who specialized in jazz, blues, ragtime, and swing music from the early 20th century. Scarlett was a known entity in the industry, and frequently collaborated and recorded with musicians such as Jackie Washington, Ken Whiteley, Bruce Cockburn, Marg Stowe, and others.

Scarlett was born in Peterborough, Ontario to an electrical engineer and schoolteacher. At the age of 10 his family moved to Ohio, with Scarlett returning to Canada at the age of 18. Scarlett would marry Anne Tener, with whom he had two daughters, Jessica and Gaelyn. Scarlett and Tener eventually divorced, and Scarlett found a long-time partner in Tina Cohen.

Scarlett routinely played at music events across Canada, and the world. He undertook several tours of the United Kingdom, Australia, and Germany, and frequented music festivals such as Summerfolk and Northern Lights. Scarlett died in Toronto on 30 May 2019 of leukemia.

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).

Charles Jeffrey (219016) served as a Lieutenant in the 44th Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force. He was killed in action in October 1917.

Jeffrey was born in Buffalo, New York, 4 December 1896 to Charles William and Laura Jeffrey. He also had a sister, Grace. The family relocated to Ottawa. Jeffrey was enrolled as a student at Queen’s University when he enlisted. He sailed to Europe in 1916. He was quickly promoted: first to Sergeant and then Lieutenant. He was shot by a sniper on the afternoon of 27 October 1917, while doing reconnaissance for an attack as part of the Battle of Passchendaele; he was 20 years old.

Kim Echlin is a writer, translator, and journalist.

Echlin was born in Burlington, Ontario in 1955. She received a B.A. (Hons.) in English at McGill University (1977) and an M.A. in English (York, 1978). Subsequently, she completed a French language course at the Sorbonne (1979) and a Ph.D. in English (York, 1982). Echlin’s Ph.D. research focused on translations of Ojibway narratives about Nanabush; her work brought her into contact with Dr. Basil Johnston, a prominent Ojibway author, ethnologist, and teacher of Anishinaabemowin.

Echlin is the author of several novels, non-fiction pieces, and translations. Significant works include Elephant Winter (1997), Dagmar’s Daughter (2001), Inanna: From the Myths of Ancient Sumer (2003), Elizabeth Smart: A Fugue Essay on Women and Creativity (2004), The Disappeared (2009), and Under the Visible Life (2015). In 2009, The Disappeared was shortlisted for the Giller prize.

In addition, Echlin has taught English and creative writing; worked in television production, significantly as arts producer for the CBC program The Journal (1986-1992); and contributed journalism to a number of publications, including the Hamilton Spectator. Noteworthy teaching engagements include stints at the Dalian Institute of Technology in northeast China (1984-1985) and the Creative Writing program at the University of Toronto’s School of Continuing Studies. Echlin has also served as Mabel Pugh Taylor Writer-in-Residence at McMaster University (2015-2016).

Philip Steele Foulds was born 12 December 1918 in Toronto to Archibald and Kate, the second of three sons. He attended Upper Canada College and Trinity College at the University of Toronto. While at University, he met Lousie Matthews and they were engaged before he was deployed in 1940.

Foulds served with distinction as a pilot in the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm and the Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve, the majority with the 856 Squadron, with over 760 hours in Swordfish, Albacores, Avengers and other planes. Numerous missions involved flying on and off air craft carriers and in other highly dangerous situations. Over the course of his service, he circumnavigated the globe.

Foulds retired from active service at the end of the war. He and Louise had been married during his 1941 leave, and they settled at the Matthew family farm in Kingsville, Ont. They had a daughter, Barbara, and Foulds worked for Hiram-Walker from 1948-1983. They moved to Toronto in the 90s; Foulds passed away after a brief illness on 18 April 2017.

Archibald Foulds was born in Quebec City in 1883 to Archibald and Mary (nee Cream) Foulds. The family moved to Toronto in 1900, and Foulds graduated from the University of Toronto in 1904. He joined the law firm of Macdonald, Shepley, Middleton & Donald. During this time, he joined the Queen’s Own Rifles. He married Kate Huldah Steele in 1912, and they would go on to have three children (Kenneth, Philip, and Derek).

Foulds entered the First World War as a Captain with the 123rd Infantry Battalion and was mentioned in General Haig’s dispatches for his and the rest of his unit’s role at Ypres during the Battle of Passchendaele. In May 1918, he joined the 8th Battalion Engineers, who were part of the Battle of Mons at the close of the War.

After the war, Foulds returned to practice. The Mason, Foulds law firm would become the largest counsel practice in Toronto. He lived in Toronto until his death in 1983.

The fonds contains information largely relating to George Alexander Hurst (1894-?) and his daughter Jean M. Hurst (1921-). After serving in World War One, George Alexander Hurst married Kathleen May Coutts in 1920. During the 1930s and 1940s he was the secretary of the On-to-the-Bay Association (now known as the Hudson Bay Route Association), an organization dedicated to the promotion of the Hudson Bay Railway as an efficient and cost effective means for western farmers to transport grain to Europe. Completed in 1929, the railway extended from The Pas to Churchill, Manitoba. He also worked on the National Harbours Board, a group responsible for the business and service operations of ports across the nation (it is now known as Ports Canada). Jean Hurst worked as a librarian at Mills Library from 1944 until 1987; her career as a McMaster librarian is documented in her unpublished manuscript, “A Librarian's Recollections Mostly of McMaster, 1944-1987.”

The Secord family settled in Barton township, county of Wentworth, Ontario. The Secord family was connected by marriage with the Powell and Miles families.

The Arnold family lived in Kitchener, Ontario in the 1930s. They had an interest in travel as well as aviation.

Specialty Book Concern, an antiquarian book dealership specializing in Canadiana, was founded by Lee Pritsker of Oakville, Ont. in 1937. Craig Fraser of Waterdown, Ont. purchased it in 1967, after retiring from a business career.