John Colborne was born on January 16, 1778, in Lymington, England and died on April 17, 1863, in Torquay, England. He was the only son of Samuel Colborne Cordelia Anne Garstin. In 1813, Colborne married Elizabeth Yonge, they had three daughters and five sons. He was educated at Christ’s Hospital in London and at Winchester College. Colborne was commissioned as an ensign in the 20th Regiment of Foot in 1794, was promoted to lieutenant in 1795, and then to captain lieutenant in 1799, where he was wounded during the Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland. In 1806, he was deployed with his regiment to Italy, where he fought at the Battle of Maida in July during the War of the Third Coalition. Colborne became military secretary to General Henry Fox that same year and then became military secretary to Sir John Moore with the rank of major in 1808. He served Moore at the Battle of Benavente, the Battle of Corunna, the Battle of Ocaña, and the Battle of Bussaco in Portugal. Colborne then went on to become commander-in-chief of all the armed forces in British North America, leading the offensive at the Battle of Saint-Eustache in Lower Canada and defeating the rebel force in 1837. In 1828, he was appointed Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada. One year later, Colborne founded Upper Canada College. In 1839, he left Canada and was elevated to the peerage as Baron Seaton, of Seaton in the County of Devon. Colborne became High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands in 1843 and then Commander-in-Chief, Ireland, in 1855. In 1866, a bronze statue sculpted by George Adams was erected at Mount Wise in Devonport, then moved to Seaton Barracks in Crownhill in the early 1960s, and then to Peninsula Barracks in Winchester in the 1990s. A second statue of Colborne was erected at Upper Canada College in Toronto. Colborne Street in London, Ontario is named after him, along with the city of Port Colborne in Ontario.

Charles William Colby, a historian and financier, was born on March 28, 1867 in Stanstead, Quebec. He was the son of a prominent businessman and politician. After obtaining his B.A. at McGill in 1887, he continued his studies at Harvard, at which university he earned his M.A. and PhD. At the age of 26 he received an appointment as lecturer of history at McGill, and soon thereafter was promoted to the level of professor. From 1899 until 1921 he occupied t he Kingsford Chair of History. Colby then retired from teaching to look after the extensive interests which he inherited from his father. His association with McGill continued, however, as Colby served as governor of the university for several years. McGill granted him an honorary Doctorate of Laws in 1921. He died December 10, 1955 in Montreal, Quebec.

After secondary education in Ottawa, Herbert Cole came to McGill where he earned his B.Sc. in 1904 and M.Sc. in 1905. He was a demonstrator in physics from 1905 to 1906, and deeply involved in the work of the Y.M.C.A. Under the aegis of the "Y", he taught science in China until 1923, when he undertook post-graduate work in physics at Columbia. He taught physics at Guilford College, North Carolina, and worked as guidance secretary in the Bronx Y.M.C.A. until 1929 when he was appointed Dean of Students at the University of Redlands in California. After his retirement, Cole worked in relief programmes in adult education, and as the manager of a gold mine.

A native of Montréal, G. Percy Cole received his B.Sc. (1903), in electrical engineering, and M.Sc (1905) from McGill University. Later, he worked for the Dominion Glass Company in Montréal.

Geraldine Kennedy Cole was born in San Francisco in 1927. She graduated from the University of California at Berkeley in 1949, where she met her husband, Jerry Cole, with whom she had four children. Cole was an antiquarian book collector, most notably of the works of English engraver and printer Thomas Bewick, and a long-time member of the Grolier Club and the Roxburghe Club.