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Gordon William Parkinson was born on November 18, 1898 in Byron, Ontario. He was the second child of Robert John Parkinson and Katherine Ellen (Hull) Parkinson. In 1904, the family moved to Granton, Ontario. Gordon left his home to work for James McCormick Leather in London, Ontario, to learn the trade of harness maker.

At the age of 17, on April 12, 1916, he voluntarily enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Forces and trained at Merwin Heights in London. He was part of the 142nd Battalion known as “London’s Own Battalion.” On July 8, 1916, his battalion left for Camp Borden by train. On November 1, 1916, the battalion left for England, and Gordon entered Dibgate Camp on November 11, 1916. Gordon crossed the channel to France on March 29, 1918, and was in active service with the First Division Canadian Corps. Throughout his time away from home, Gordon regularly wrote to his father, the family, and to his older brother Bob. He also sent home various items such as souvenirs, and a book titled “Atlas of the War.” Gordon was in the 1st Battalion, First Division Wing, D Coy, when he was killed in action on October 1, 1918. Gordon was buried in the Sancourt British Cemetery in France on October 17, 1918.

Richard Parr served aboard HMS Canopus during the First World War. HMS Canopus, a pre-dreadnaught, took part in battle at the Falkland Islands. The ship later served at the Dardanelles.

Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, composer, scholar and teacher, was born at Bournemouth on 27 February 1848. He was educated at Eton College and Exeter College, Oxford. He composed piano music and songs throughout his career while writing much less chamber and orchestral music as he grew older. He joined the staff of the Royal College of Music when it opened in 1883 and remained on staff until his death. For a brief period, 1900-1908, he also taught music at Oxford. He was knighted in 1898. He died in Rustington, Sussex, on 7 October 1918.

Le parti québécois was formed in October 1969, primarily through the union of René Lévesque's Mouvement souveraineté-association and the Railliement national led by Gilles Gregoire.

Keith Patrick was born on Sept 22, 1918, in Saint John New Brunswick. He was the son of Hugh and Lily Patrick, and had six brothers: W.E. Robinson, Ronald, Edmond, Raymond, Kenneth Roland, and Murray. He received an elementary and high school education in Saint John, West Haven, Connecticut, and Lynn, Massachusetts. He was employed by American News Co. in Lynn at the outbreak of war, prompting him to return to New Brunswick to enlist. Keith served in the R.C.A.F. from 1940 to 1945 as a Wireless Operator/Air Gunner. He received training at Wireless School in Calgary and Bombing and Gunnery School in Macdonald, Manitoba. His overseas postings included Operational Training Units and Ferry Command in England; in Egypt with the RAF 108 Squadron; and in France with the 427 Lion Squadron.

He was on his second tour with the RCAF 427 Squadron when his Halifax bomber was shot down in Pas-de-Calais, France, on the night of June 12, 1944. Seriously injured, he and his pilot, Don Fulton, were sheltered by members of the French Resistance. They were liberated in September 1944. Keith retired from the RCAF in February 1945 at the rank of Flight Lieutenant.

After the war, he had a successful career as a Purchasing Manager with Ford Motor Co. in Saint John, Canadair in Montreal and Fleet Manufacturing and Horton-CBI in Fort Erie.

Keith married Phyllis Taylor on June 29, 1946. They had three children, Charmian, Janet, and Philip. Keith self-published his memoirs, To the Stars, with his daughter Janet Lee MacNeil in 2014. Keith passed away in 2021, in Kitchener, Ontario.

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.

Peace Brigades International was founded in Canada on 4 September 1981. Peace workers from Europe, Canada, United States and India met at Grindstone Island and issued a founding statement which read in part "[We] will undertake nonpartisan missions which may include peacemaking initiatives, peacekeeping under a discipline of nonviolence, and humanitarian service."

Alfred E. Pease, second baronet of Hutton Lowcross and Pinchinthorpe, was born in 1857, the son of Sir Joseph Whitall Pease, a prominent Quaker director of mercantile enterprise and the first Quaker baronet. The younger Pease was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge. From 1885 to 1982 Sir Alfred was member of parliament for York City, and from 1879 to 1902 he represented the Cleveland division of Yorkshire. He was one of the founders, and for many years president, of the Cleveland Bay Horse Society. He died in 1939.

Norman Penner was born in Winnipeg, into a Mennonite family from Ukraine. He is the son of Jacob Penner, a revolutionary socialist and organizer of the Winnipeg General Strike, and Rose Shapack, a Russian Jewish immigrant. His parents met at an address by Emma Goldman. His father was a founder of the Social Democratic Party of Canada and the Communist Party of Canada and was elected to Winnipeg city council in 1933. As a child, Norman became a celebrated orator with the Young Pioneers. After high school, he worked as a full-time officer of the Communist Party of Canada from 1938 to 1941. He enlisted in the Canadian Army and served overseas during World War II. After returning to Canada, he became National Youth Director of the Communist Party. He unsuccessfully ran for office in the 1951 Ontario election and the 1953 federal election. He broke from the Communist Party in 1957 and later returned to school, earning a doctorate from the University of Toronto. He became a Political Science professor at York University’s Glendon College until his retirement in 1995.

Herbert Rolland (Bill) Percy was born in Burnham, Kent, in 1920. He retired from the Canadian Navy in 1971 with the rank of Lieutenant Commander, 35 years after he entered the Royal Navy in England at the age of 16. In 1942 he married Mary Davina James. Together they raised three children. The author of numerous short stories, Percy has also written novels, biographies, and navy training manuals. He acted as editor of Canadian Author and Bookman from 1963 to 1966, and was involved in a number of professional organizations for writers. Percy died in 1997.

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.

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.

Peter Martin Associates (PMA) was founded by Peter and Carol Martin in 1965. As well as publishing significant works in the field of Canadian politics, art, and culture, the company specialized in children's books, young adult fiction, and text books for the college education market. Authors included Janet Lunn, Fredelle Maynard, David Lewis Stein, Robert Fulford, Donald Cameron, and Joyce Wieland. The sale and distribution of PMA books was overseen by a number of companies over the years, including the Belford Book Distributing Company (owned in part by PMA) and by the University of Toronto Press, on a fee basis. The firm was sold to The Book Society of Canada, owned by Irwin Publishing, in 1982.

Lorraine Phelan, a Toronto socialite, was born in 1914. She died suddenly in 1932 from an attack of appendicitis. Her brother, Paul Phelan, married Helen Gardiner, the daughter of Percy Gardiner, a Toronto financier, in 1942.

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.

The Philp brothers both enlisted to serve in World War I, Herbert (1889-1920) on 23 September 1914 and Norman (1896-1968) on 10 May 1915. Their parents were Mary Elizabeth Healey and William Philp, a bandmaster, and they lived in Guelph, Ont. One of their sisters, Helen Isabel Philp was the great-grandmother of the writer Trevor Cole.

Herb began his military service as a trumpeter in first Canadian Contingent, Divisional Signal Co. He later was assigned to the 8th Battalion of Winnipeg. He served in the battle of Passchendaele in November 1917 and received the Mons Star on 13 January 1920. Although he returned to Canada, he died of pneumonia on 19 January 1920 at the age of 31. At the time of his death he was on the editorial staff of the Guelph Mercury.

Herb wrote letters home which were published in the local newspaper, the Daily Courier, beginning with “Good Omen Meets Canadian Contingent” which was written on 17 October 1914. His letters were also published in the Guelph Evening Mercury and Advertiser. He describes the third Battle of Ypres, June 1916. His writing continues to 1919 when he describes the occupation of Germany. He collapsed shortly thereafter. His brother Norman also wrote letters home which were published. He served with the Canadian Ordnance Corps.

Antony Fenwick (Tony) Pickard, O.B.E., C.D., R.C.N., was a career officer in the Royal Canadian Navy.

Born in Victoria, BC, he began serving as a cadet in 1928, taking various appointments before the start of the war. During the Second World War, he was commander of a corvette squadron that escorted merchant ships across the Atlantic.

His post-war service included acting as captain of HMCS Haida. He spent three years of his naval career in Hamilton, from 1956 to 1959, where he was chief of staff of Commanding Officer Naval Divisions (COND), based at HMCS Star on the Hamilton bayfront, the headquarters of Canada’s naval reserves. He was present for the independence celebrations in Sierra Leone in 1961 and after retiring in 1965, he was manager of one of Canada’s theme pavilions at EXPO67 in Montreal. He became administrator for the Department of Computer Science at the University of Waterloo in 1968. He died in 1972.

The son of a prominent Irish contractor, Joseph M. Pigott was born in Hamilton on 23 February 1885 and educated in Hamilton Separate Schools and Collegiate Institute. In 1903 he began working for his father's expanding construction company, one he would guide to unknown wealth and size. After having gained a thorough grounding in the construction industry Pigott travelled to Saskatchewan in 1909 with his younger brother Roy where they secured a large contract to build St. Paul's Hospital in Saskatoon. While in the West, Pigott met and married Yvonne Prince, daughter of Hon. B. Prince of Battlefield, Saskatchewan, and returned to Hamilton before living briefly in Detroit.

When Roy Pigott returned from the First World War, the two brothers began to direct Pigott Construction to fortune and fame. The first $1,000,000 year came in 1926, and in 1930, Hamilton's earliest skyscraper, the 16-storey Pigott Building, was completed. While Joseph and Roy led the company through the years of the depression, Pigott also dedicated himself to his growing family of 6 boys, 4 of whom were later associated with their father in his business.

After the Second World War Pigott Construction was Canada's largest privately-owned construction company amassing more than $113,000,000 in business in a single year. As head of his own company, Pigott erected some of Canada's largest industrial plants and finest buildings, including the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto; Crown Life Insurance Company head office, Toronto; Bank of Canada, Ottawa; a $45,000,000 plant for General Motors, Oshawa, and buildings totalling $50,000,000 for A. V. Roe Company in Malton. In Hamilton, buildings erected by the Pigott firm include the Canadian Westinghouse offices, Banks of Nova Scotia, Royal and Montreal, McMaster University, the County Court House, Westdale Secondary School, St. Joseph's Hospital, the Pigott Building, the new City Hall and the Cathedral of Christ the King. Upon completion of the Cathedral, Pope Pius XI, in recognition of his accomplishment on this and other buildings, created him a Knight Commander of the Order of St. Gregory the Great and later "Con Placa".

In 1946 in acknowledgment of his services to the Government of Canada during the war Pigott was created Commander of the British Empire. His service to Canada as president of the Wartime Housing Ltd. provided solutions to some most serious problems at that critical time. In consideration of his contributions to social welfare and to the political and intellectual life of Christian society, he was invested as a knight of magistral grace of the Sovereign and Military order of Malta in 1953, and in 1962, he was awarded the honorary degree of LL.D by McMaster University. He was a former president of the Canadian Construction Association, Hamilton Chamber of Commerce, a former vice-president and director of the Toronto-Dominion Bank, president of Pigott Realty Ltd., vice-president and director of North American Life Assurance Company, director of Canada Permanent Trust Company, Atlas Steels Ltd., and United Fuel Investments Ltd. Pigott was also a former president of the board of governors of the Art Gallery of Hamilton, a director of the Ontario Heart Foundation, chairman of the advisory committee of St. Joseph's Hospital, a member of the Hamilton Club, the Hamilton Golf and Country Club and the National Club of Toronto. Pigott played an enormous role in the development of Hamilton. He died in Hamilton on 20 April 1969.

Vivian de Sola Pinto was born in 1895 and educated at Oxford in classics and English, though his studies interrupted by World War I. After spending some time at the Sorbonne, he was appointed chair of English at Southampton. In 1938 he took up the chair of English at Nottingham University in its first year of incorporation where he remained until his retirement in 1961. Pinto was also an author, critic, and poet – a champion of the unorthodox and non-conformist strain in English literature. He published works on Sir Charles Sedley, Peter Sterry, and Rochester. He edited a collection of poems by D.H. Lawrence and played a leading part in the bicentenary celebration of William Blake. He also published an autobiography, The City Than Shone. Pinto died on 27 July 1969.

Pirate is the largest and most awarded advertising production company in Canada. Founded in Toronto in 1990, Pirate began in radio but has since expanded to television and the internet, has added a New York office, and as of 2012 operates 10 recording studios. The company specializes in voice, music, and sound design, and also employs music composers, script and concept writers, and a large team of producers and casting directors. Pirate is highly regarded in the industry for its innovation—it was one of the first studios to offer both writing and production services, one of the first to build its own studios, and has developed a rights-cleared music search engine for advertisers. Pirate’s early success attracted an ever-increasing client base from many different sectors of society including airlines, the automotive industry, charitable organizations, cultural and educational institutions, financial institutions, the food and beverage industry, governments and government agencies, media and telecommunication companies, retail stores, unions and more.