James R.H. Hille was an autograph collector who lived in Leigh-on-Sea, England.
Lily Edward Jones was a poet who lived in Hamilton, Ont. She published two books with local printers, Odd Echoes in 1929, and Woodland Songs in 1936. Both books are in Research Collections.
Colin Lock was born in England in 1933. He was educated at the University of London and Imperial College London. He held appointments at U.K. Atomic Energy Authority, and was a scientific officer for the Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. at Chalk River, Ont. from 1957-1960. In 1963 he completed his Ph.D. from the University of London and was appointed Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry at McMaster University. He taught there until his sudden death on 1 May 1996 while visiting the Chalk River Laboratories.
His long career at McMaster, where he specialized in the study of inorganic chemistry and pathology, led to clinical research in cancer and arthritis. Dr. Lock was elected Fellow of the Chemical Institute of Canada in 1968 and served as Chairman from 1981-1983. In 1989 he was presented with the prestigious Montreal Medal for his contributions to the field of inorganic chemistry. He was the author and co-author of over 250 scientific papers. Until his death he was on the Research and Development Advisory Panel for the Atomic Energy Commission of Canada. He was married to Helen E. Howard-Lock, professor of Chemistry at McMaster.
Alexander Logie was born in Rosefield, Nairnshire, Scotland in 1823. It is not known when he moved to Canada. In 1843, he was admitted as a student at law by the Law Society of Upper Canada and was called to the Bar in 1848. He practiced in Hamilton, Ontario, and later served as a judge with the Wentworth County Court (1854-1873). Logie was active with
the St. Paul's Presbyterian Church in Hamilton, acting as a teacher, elder and trustee. He served on Hamilton City Council from 1857 to 1860. Logie died in Hamilton on 10 December
1873.
John Horton MacIntyre also used the name "Mack". He was the author of a few poetry books published, in part, by subscribers such as Maple Leaves and Sprigs O'Heather (1925).
Johannis (Hans) Mol, professor and author, was born in Rozenburg, The Netherlands, on 14 February 1922. He was educated at the United Theological Faculty in Sydney, Australia, the Union Theological Seminary in New York, and Columbia University in New New York. He lectured in sociology at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand from 1961-1963 and was a fellow in sociology at the Institute of Advanced Studies of the Australian National University from 1963 until he arrived at McMaster University in 1970. He is the author of several books on the sociology of religion. After his retirement he was named Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies.
William Charles Noble was born on 1 May 1941 to William T. Noble(1913-1989) and Lucy R. Noble (1913-2005). A graduate of the University of Toronto, he received his Ph.D. from the University of Calgary in 1968 (thesis entitled “Iroquois archaeology and the development of Iroquois social organization, 1000-1650 A.D.: A study in culture change based on archaeology, ethnohistory and ethnology”). Noble was the first Canadian-born student to graduate with a Ph.D. from the University of Calgary, which was the first university in Canada to establish an archaeology program. He was hired as an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology at McMaster University on 1 July 1971. Nicknamed “Barren Lands Bill”, Noble excavated many sites, including Cleveland (AhHb-7), Hamilton (AiHa-5), Thorold (AgGt-1), and Walker (AgHa-9). He was the author of numerous studies on Iroquois (Six Nations / Haudenosaunee / Rotinonshionni) culture, the Neutral (Chonnonton / Onguiaahra) people who lived along the western shores of Lake Ontario, and early Ontario archaeology. In the early 1990s he was Professor Emeritus after taking early retirement. Married twice, first to Jean MacLeod Slater and later to Jacqueline E.M. Crerar (Noble), he had two children, Gordon William Noble (1969-1988) and Elizabeth M. Noble. He died on 26 April 2009.
Milos Novotny, mathematician, was born in Czechoslovakia and educated at Charles University in Prague from 1949 to 1953. He taught at the Czech Technical University in Prague from 1953 to 1963. He arrived in Canada in 1968 for graduate study at McMaster University where he received his doctorate in 1972. His thesis was titled, "Integration and Laplace Transformation of Orthogonal Series." After graduating from McMaster University, he taught at the University of Guelph, Université de Montréal, and finally Champlain Regional College in St. Lambert.
Liam O'Flaherty, novelist, was born on 28 August 1896 on Inishmore in the Aran Islands, Ireland. He was educated at University College, Dublin. After World War I, he travelled through the United States and Canada, paying his way by working as a labourer and clerk. He returned to Ireland in 1920 and helped to found the Irish Communist Party in 1922. Later that year he was forced to flee to England. His novel, The Informer (1925), about a man who betrays his friends, won the James Tait Black Prize in 1926. He also wrote Famine (1937) about the potato famine of the 1840s. He died in Dublin on 7 September 1984.
Herbert Edward Palmer, lyric and narrative poet and critic, was born in Market Rasen, Lincolnshire on 10 February 1880 and educated at Birmingham and later Bonn Universities. For many years he worked as a schoolmaster. In 1921 he relinquished his post as English master at St. Alban's school to devote himself to a full-time literary career. His Collected Poems were published in 1933. He published an autobiography, The Mistletoe Child, in 1935. Palmer died on 17 May 1961.
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.
The content of these notebooks was created by George Alfred Reynolds (Rennie) Gibbons of Sturgeon River, N.W.T., Robin Gibbons, and Frank Carson.
Andreas Roessner, burgess and basketmaker lived in Kelheim, Bavaria, with Maria his wife.
Siegfried Sassoon, poet, was born 8 September 1886 at Weirleigh, near Paddock Wood in Kent. He was educated at Marlborough College and Clare College, Cambridge. He published two anti-war books of poems, The Old Huntsman (1917) and Counter-Attack (1918) which sprung from his service in World War I. He wrote a lightly fictionalized autobiography titled Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man (1928) which won both the Hawthornden and James Tait Black memorial prizes. The book was the first of a trilogy. All three books appeared as The Complete Memoirs of George Sherston (1937). He went on to publish a factual autobiography, also a trilogy. His poems were collected and published in 1947. Sassoon died at Heytesbury House, near Warminster in Wiltshire on 1 September 1967.
Leslie Webster Shemilt was born on 25 December 1919 in Souris, Manitoba. Dr. Shemilt received his undergraduate training at the University of Toronto, completed his Masters at the University of Manitoba, and received his PhD in Physical Chemistry from the University of Toronto. Dr. Shemilt played an active role in initiating the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of British Columbia before moving on to found the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of New Brunswick in 1960.
In 1969 he joined the Faculty Of Engineering McMaster University as Dean. Serving as Dean from 1969 to 1979, he was also very involved with the Technical Advisory Committee of the AECL Nuclear Fuel Waste Management Program. Dr. Shemilt is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the Engineering Institute of Canada and the Canadian Academy of Engineering. He has participated widely in university affairs, particularly in the area of the role of the physical sciences in the curriculum and its impact on society. He was a member of several non-professional societies, such as the Sherlock Holmes Society and the Bootmakers of Toronto. He was also involved with the United Church in Canada. Dr. Shemilt passed away on 20 December 2011.
Harry W. Snelling was born in Woolich, England on October 14, 1849. In March 1867 Snelling enlisted in the 60th Royal Rifles, 1st Battalion. Snelling and his battalion were sent to Canada to assist with the Riel uprising in 1870. Following his armed service, Snelling became involved in the operation of a small Montreal store. He married a woman from Ireland, named Jane (4 May 1840-, and they had a daughter Isabella Caroline (25 Sept. 1879-). Between 1891 and 1901 the family moved from Montreal to Kingston where he was the Manager for a telephone company. He was still alive in 1921 when the census was conducted.
Hugo Sonnenschein was born in Kyjov in what is now the Czech Republic in 1889. He wrote under the name of Sonka and his first book of poems was published in 1907 while he was a student in Vienna. During the First World War he served on the Balkan front, but was taken into custody for pacifist activities on several occasions. Following the war he turned to politics and founded the Red Guard as well as being active in the communist community, though he was later kicked out of the Communist Party. Die Legende vom weltverkommenen Sonka, was published in 1920, and is considered his major work. In 1943, he and his wife, Rosa, were sent to Auschwitz. He survived, but after the war he was accused of collaborating with the State Police and in 1947 sentenced to a twenty-year sentence. He died in 1953 in Mirov prison.
Norman Roy Stephenson, son of William Howard and Caroline Emily Stephenson (née Farrow), was born in Toronto on 1 February 1890. He was one of eleven children. Four Stephenson brothers (Edwin Howard, John Carleton, Henry Arthur, and Roy) served in World War I. Roy Stephenson served with the 4th Battalion, the Royal Canadian Regiment, in northern France. He was wounded twice in battle: a gunshot in the shoulder at Ypres on 26 March 1915 and shrapnel in the leg at Canal du Nord near Arras on 10 September 1918.
After the war on 26 November 1920, he married Elfrida Bourne. They had four children. Although Stephenson was an electrician by trade, in the 1920s he worked at odd jobs, selling family produce. He also went out to western Canada during harvest time. In 1930 he applied and passed the Post Office exams and was a postman in Hamilton until his retirement. He died on 2 February 1959.
Michael Tippett, composer and conductor, was born in London on 2 January 1905. He was educated at the Royal College of Music. In 1933 Tippett was asked to conduct what became the South London (Morley College) Orchestra. He later became the director of music at Morley College. In 1951 he resigned from the college to do broadcasting for the British Broadcasting Corporation, a job which allowed him more time for composition. From 1969 to 1974 he was director of the Bath Festival. He was knighted in 1966. Tippett composed works for the stage, including operas, choral, orchestral, chamber and instrumental music. He died 8 January 1998.
