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Iris Amy Warden, author and illustrator, was born in 1904 presumably in England.

Walt Whitman, poet, was born on 31 May 1819 in West Hills, Long Island, New York. He began to work at age eleven as an office boy. His Leaves of Grass was first published in 1855. He died on 26 March 1892 in Camden, New Jersey. Henry Scholey Saunders (1864-1951) who compiled the photograph album was a Whitman devotee. He wrote a number of privately published books on Whitman, including Whitman Portraits, Toronto, 1922 (9 copies printed) and Whitman Portraits, Toronto, 1923 (4 copies printed). Both of these books, it would appear, were based on the photograph album he compiled. The album was given as a gift to Albert Ernest Stafford Smythe.

Charles Wilkinson was born in England in 1909. He worked in London's Fleet Street before emigrating to Canada. His first employment at The Hamilton Spectator was as a copy editor. He was appointed religion editor there in 1963. He retired in 1985. An interview with Wilkinson appeared in The Spectator on 16 February 1985. He died on 2 May 1994 in Hamilton, Ont.

Henry Carl Nunn was born in Bolton, Ontario, on the 21st of July, 1883. Son of George Nunn and Emma Jane Cole, he had one sister, Nell. He grew up in Bolton until the family moved to Hamilton in his teens. After a number of early jobs, he started his own business selling mail order hardware and building materials. Quickly, he became a pioneer in North America of pre-fabricated homes. Nunn was the founder and President of the Halliday Homes Company, which was famous for the “Bunkie” style home. The company survived the Depression under Nunn’s ethical and hardworking guidance and then prospered in the years following.

He married Margaret Johnston in 1908, and they went on to have two children, Roger and Phyllis. Outside his work, Nunn was a committed naturalist with a particular interest in ornithology. He was Chairman of the Federation of Ontario Naturalists and promoted the appreciation of birds and wildlife throughout his life. He was also active in his church and lived his faith in his daily life. Additional biographical and genealogical details can be found in Box 6, file 19.

John Masefield, poet, novelist and playwright, was born in Herefordshire, on 1 June 1878. In 1888 he was sent to Warwick School and then, in 1891, to Liverpool, to train in the merchant marine. He followed this training by work at sea and travel. He returned to England in 1897 to take up his vocation as a poet while also working as a clerk. Beginning in 1901 he devoted himself full time to writing. During World War I Masefield was sent to the United States to explain the British war effort. In 1917 he received honorary degrees from both Yale and Harvard universities, the first of many such awards. He was Poet Laureate from 1930 to 1967. In 1935 he was elected to the Order of Merit. He died on 12 May 1967 at his home near Abingdon.

Matthew Arnold, (1822–1888), poet, writer, and inspector of schools, was educated at Balliol College, Oxford. His best-known work is the poem "Dover Beach". He died on 15 April 1888 in Liverpool.

Frank S. Wood, born in March 1871, emigrated from Yorkshire, England to Hamilton, Ontario in 1888. It was during that year he collected a small lithic celt from a site in Yorkshire, which marked the beginning of his collecting career. The Wood artifact collection consists of approximately 10,007 specimens. The collection was amassed by Frank S. Wood and continued by his son Alfred E. Wood. Importantly, Wood collected a Palaeo-indigineous fluted point in Binbrook Township. This projectile point is one of the oldest found in Ontario (8000-6000 BCE). The Wood artifact collection was donated to McMaster University in 1973 (housed in the Ethnography Collection in the Department of Anthropology).

In 1894, Wood participated in the “Around the Bay Road Race”, winning second place behind W.R. Marshall. Frank S. Wood’s final race occurred as part of the 1 July 1 1927 Confederation Jubilee celebrations in Hamilton. He entered as the most senior participant at 56 years old.

Katharine Birkmyre was the daughter of Rev. Canon Thomas Skelton (1834-1915). She was married to Henry Birkmyre who was possibly connected to the firm of Birkmyre Brothers, a jute and linen manufacturer. The couple lived at 67 Cadogan Gardens in London.

Sir Sydney Philip Perigal Waterlow, born 12 October 1878 in Barnet, England, was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge. After a short period as part of the diplomatic service, Waterlow returned to Cambridge to resume his studies in 1905. It was during this period that Waterlow attached himself to the Bloomsbury group, a group he kept in close contact until his death. After his second marriage to Margery Eckhard, Waterlow resumed work in the diplomatic service. From 1919 through 1929, Waterlow held the positions of acting First Secretary at the Paris Peace Conference, Director of the Foreign Division of the Department for Overseas Trade, and as Minister at Bangkok and Addis Ababa. In the decade following, Waterlow served as British Minister in Athens until 1939. Sir Sydney Waterlow died on 4 December 1944.

Katina Paxinou was born on 17 December 1900 in Piraeus, Greece. At thirteen, Paxinou studied for three years at the Conservatory of Geneva, Switzerland, a period of study that inevitably launched her career as a film and theatre actress, song writer, and opera singer. In 1930, after a six month tour of the United States, Paxinou was married to Greece’s foremost actor, Alexis Minotis. Together, the husband and wife team founded the Royal Theatre of Athens. Paxinou is well known for her role as Electra, and in North America as the 1943 Academy Award winning best actress in a supporting role for her portrayal of Pilar in the film For Whom the Bell Tolls. Paxinou died on 22 February 1973 in Athens.

Rolf was an American serviceman during WWII.

Frank O'Connor is the pseudonoym of Michael O'Donovan, born in county Cork, Ireland in 1903, and primarily known as a short story writer. He died in Dublin on 10 March 1966.

Terence Rattigan, the playwright, was born in 1911 in London and educated at Harrow and Trinity College, Oxford. Shortly after leaving Oxford without a degree he had a play produced in the West End. He excelled in both stage plays and films. Some of his best known works are The Winslow Boy, The Browning Version and Separate Tables. Rattigan died in Bermuda in 1977.

Richard Hoff was born in Breslau Germany on 21 May 1904. His father, Leo Hoff, was born a Jew but later converted to Christianity in 1919. He had already had his son baptized in September 1904. Richard Hoff graduated from Friedrich Wilhelm University, Breslau in 1928 and was appointed as a judge in the Ministry of Justice in 1930. He was dismissed in April 1933 because he was of “Non-Aryan descent”. He later found work as the Manager of the Union of Non-Aryan Christians, Silesian Branch. The task of the Union was to advise and help Christian non-Ayrans who were being oppressed by the Nazis. He also worked as a clerk for various companies. In August 1939 he was able to emigrate to England where he found employment as a horticultural worker. He had hoped to emigrate to Brazil but that did not happen; instead he ended up in Canada in 1940. He was placed in an internment camp in Farnham, Quebec and was later transferred to a camp in Sherbrooke. In January 1943 he was at a refugee camp, Ile aux Noix, St. Paul, Quebec. He became a Canadian citizen in December 1946 and settled in Ottawa, working for the Directorate of Censorship. He married Margaret Bramley in 1969. He died in 1995 at the age of 91.

Elizabeth Mary Copley was born on 11 April 1800, the daughter of Sir Joseph Copley Bart. and lived at Sprotbrough Hall in Yorkshire, England. Sprotbrough Hall stands on a limestone ridge overlooking the River Don, near Doncaster. It was built in the late seventeenth century by Sir Godfrey Copley and contained a large library and a valuable collection of paintings. The hall was auctioned for death duties in 1925 and demolished in 1926. Miss Copley died on 12 January 1887.

The Robert Fuge, a brig, travelled from Liverpool to Quebec City in the summer of 1819. The master of the ship was A.G. Blewett. On board were J. Fenton and 32 other settlers. The ship arrived in Quebec on 26 August, after a voyage of 60 days.