Born in Snelgrove, Ontario, John F. Snell obtained his B.A. from the University of Toronto in 1894 and his Ph.D. from Cornell University in 1898. Snell joined the faculty of McGill University in 1907 and became the first Professor of chemistry at Macdonald College. Upon his retirement in 1936 as Professor Emeritus, he was appointed by the Board of Governors at McGill as honorary historian of Macdonald College. The result of his research was published after his death as History of Macdonald College of McGill University (McGill University Press, 1963).

Henry Saxon Snell (1831-1904) worked in the offices of Sir James Pennethorne, Sir Joseph Paxton and Sir William Tite. In 1851 he won the Royal Academy Silver Medal for his measured drawings of St. Mary-le-Bow, Cheapside. About 1866 he was appointed architect to the St.Marylebone Board of Guardians, beginning the reconstruction of the Marylebone Workhouse.He became a member of the Architectural Association in 1850 and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1873. Among his principal architectural works were the Boys’ School for the Royal Patriotic Fund, Wandsworth; the Convalescent Home for Children, Norbiton; the Holorn Union Infirmary, Highgate Hill; St. Olave’s Tooly Street Union Infirmary, St. George’s Hanover Square, Union Infirmary; Casual Wards, Marylbone Workhouse; Marylbone Swimming Baths; Infirm Wards and administrative offices for St. Luke’s Workhouse in City Road and Shepherdess Walk.

In 1887 his designs were adopted for a conversion of the front main building of the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary for administrative and clinical purposes only, and for the removal of all the patients into new pavilions at the rear. He was architect jointly with Mr. Alfred Williams, of the Kensington Infirmary, and assisted Capt. Fowke, R.E., on the Dublin Exhibition.

Henry Saxon Snell was afterwards in partnership with his son, Alfred Saxon Snell, under the name of H. Saxon Snell and Son, and carried out extensive works for various Metropolitan Boards of Guardians. He retired in 1897. Under the terms of his will, the sum of £750 was given to the Royal Institute of British Architects for the institution and maintenance of a special triennial Scholarship. Among his publications are Charitable and Parochial Institutions (London: B.T. Batsford, 1881) and Hospital Construction and Management (London: Churchill,1883).

In September 1887,the name of the British architect Henry Saxon Snell (1831-1904) was mentioned by the founders of the RVH as a suitable architect for the project. On December 22, 1887 it was decided to employ Saxon Snell for the preparation of the plans, specifications and working drawings of the hospital. He visited Montreal for the first time in the winter of 1888 bringing with him sketch plans for a proposed hospital. The plans were the subject of much protest because of the size of the buildings. After the change of site for the hospital to University Street, he returned to Montreal in the spring of 1889 with new plans. The final plans showed many changes in the layout, in the staff accommodation, the size of the Out-Patient Department, and in operating room facilities.

Karen Smythe of the architectural firm Smythe and Schyberg, was one of the architects for the residence of J. W. McConnell, Saran Chai in Val David, Quebec, 1929-1930.

Sir Warington Wilkinson Smyth was born on August 26, 1817, in Naples, Italy, where his father, William Henry Smyth (1788-1865), was engaged in the Admiralty Survey of the Mediterranean.

He was a British geologist. He was educated at Westminster and Bedford School. He graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge (B.A., 1839). After receiving a travelling scholarship, he spent about four years in Europe, Anatolia, Syria, and Egypt, studying mineralogy and mining, examining coal fields, metalliferous mines, and salt-works, and meeting many distinguished geologists and mineralogists. Upon his return to England in 1844, Smyth was appointed mining geologist of the National Geological Survey. In 1851, he became a lecturer at the Royal School of Mines, a post he held until 1881. In 1851, he became Chief Mineral Inspector of the Office of Woods and Forests. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1858. He became president of the Geological Society of London in 1866–1868. In 1879, he was chairman of a Royal Commission on Accidents in Coal Mines, thus becoming part of the reform for safety in mines. In the same year, he became the Foreign Secretary of Geological Society. He contributed papers to the Memoirs of the Geological Survey, the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, and the Transactions of the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall, serving as its president from 1871 to 1879, and again from 1883 to 1890. He was the author of “A Year with the Turks” (1854) and “A Treatise on Coal and Coal-mining” (1867). Smyth was knighted in 1887.

In 1864, he married Anna Maria Antonia Story Maskelyne (1827–1909). He died on June 19, 1890, in London, England.

Jan Christiaan Smuts was born on May 24, 1870, in Swartland, Cape, South Africa.

He was a South African statesman, military leader, and philosopher. He was educated at Victoria College, Stellenbosch and Christ's College, Cambridge. He was called to the bar at the Middle Temple in 1894 but returned home in 1895 and practiced law in Pretoria, the capital of the South African Republic. During the Second Boer War, Smuts commanded a force against the British with the rank of general. In 1902, he played a key role in negotiating the Treaty of Vereeniging, which ended the war and resulted in the annexation of the South African Republic and Orange Free State into the British Empire. Smuts played a leading role in the creation of the Union of South Africa in 1910, helping shape its constitution. He and Botha established the South African Party, with Botha becoming the union's first prime minister and Smuts holding multiple cabinet portfolios. However, when World War I broke out in 1914, Smuts became a staunch defender of the Allied cause. In 1918, he published a pamphlet titled “The League of Nations: A Practical Suggestion.” He played a leading role at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, advocating for the creation of the League of Nations and securing South African control over the former German South-West Africa. From 1919 to 1924, and from 1939 to 1948, he was Prime Minister of South Africa. In 1926, he published his only philosophical work, “Holism and Evolution.” In 1941, Smuts was appointed a field marshal of the British Army. In 1945, he represented South Africa in San Francisco at the drafting of the United Nations Charter. He was a leading guest at the 1947 wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. In 1948, he was elected Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, becoming the first person outside the United Kingdom to hold that position.

In 1897, he married Sybilla Margaret Krige (1870–1954). He died on September 11, 1950, in Irene, Transvaal, South Africa.