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Sir James Edward Alexander was born on October 16, 1803, in Stirling, Scotland.

In 1820, he joined the British East India Company's army, transferring to the British Army in 1825. As aide-de-camp to the British envoy, he witnessed the war between Persia and Russia in 1826, the Russo-Turkish War in 1828-1829, the War of the Two Brothers in Portugal in 1832-1834, and the 6th Cape Frontier War in South Africa in 1835. In 1838, he was made a Knight Bachelor for his services. From 1841, he served in Canada, among others on the staff of Sir William Rowan. During the Crimean War, he commanded the 14th (Buckinghamshire) Regiment of Foot as a lieutenant colonel in the Siege of Sevastopol in 1855 and the New Zealand Wars, 1860 to 1862. He retired from active service in 1877, and on July 1, 1881, he received the honorary rank of general. He co-founded the Royal Geographical Society and conducted an exploring expedition into Namaqualand and Damaraland (1836-1837). There, he collected rock specimens, pelts of rare animals, bird skins, weapons and drew maps of the region. The cartographer John Arrowsmith used his data to draw a map accompanying his book of the expedition. Alexander Bay on the Orange River mouth is named after him.

In 1837, he married Eveline Marie Mitchell ​​(1821-1906). He died on April 2, 1885, in Ryde, Isle of Wight, England.

The Alexandra Hospital was constructed from 1904 to 1906 in Pointe-Saint-Charles, Montreal, to care for English-speaking children and adolescents with infectious diseases. At that time, such care included isolating patients in dedicated wards; the main ones at the Alexandra were for measles, diphtheria, and scarlet fever. In 1948, it opened a tuberculosis ward specialized for meningeal disease. Because of the declining incidence of “epidemic” childhood infections, the hospital dropped the modifier “for contagious disease” from its name in 1968, and it changed its mission to long-term care of children with physical and mental disabilities. In 1973, it merged with the Montreal Children’s Hospital (becoming its Alexandra Pavilion). The latter closed in 1988, and its buildings have since been converted into residential (social housing) units.

Frederick Joseph Ricketts grew up in East End London. His early musical training was on the piano and organ. Orphaned at 14, he heard street musicians and bands and decided joining an army band would be best for his future.
In 1895 Ricketts was enlisted as a Band Boy in the Royal Irish Regiment. A good cornet player, he was put into the regimental band. In his free time, he learned all the other band instruments and in 1903, was recommended for entry into the Student Bandmaster Course at the Royal Military School of Music. He graduated in 1906 and stayed on as chapel organist and assistant to the Director of Music. Ricketts became Bandmaster to the Band of the 2nd Battalion of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders in 1908. The colonel asked him to write a new march for the Argylls, and Ricketts wrote "The Thin Red Line", not published until 1925.
Ricketts wanted to compose music but being engaged in commercial activities was not accepted for officers of Ricketts's rank, so he composed and published under the pen name Kenneth J. Alford.
In 1927 Ricketts was commissioned a lieutenant in the Royal Marines Band Service. In 1930, he was posted to the Band of the Plymouth Division, Royal Marines, the principal band of the Royal Marines. Under his direction, the band became world-famous and before and during World War II made a series of 78 RPM recordings of Alford marches, since reissued in LP and CD formats. Ricketts retired from the Royal Marines in 1944 because of ill health and died the following year. While best known for his marches often compared to those of John Philip Sousa, he wrote many other pieces. His championing of the saxophone played a part in getting the instrument accepted in military bands. He is also credited with the first arrangements for bagpipes with military band.

A. Maddick & Co. was a partnership between Alfred Maddick and Albert Levy that operated out of London. They were British and foreign advertising contractors with the concessions for advertisement in England, Scotland, Ireland, the Colonies, and America. The partnership was dissolved in 1873.