Flying ace Raymond Collinshaw was born in Nanaimo, BC, to Welsh immigrant parents and at the age of 15 went to sea. Starting as a cabin boy with Canadian Fisheries, he later participated in the mission which arrived too late to rescue find the doomed Arctic Stefansson expedition; he worked seven years on ships, attaining the position of first officer. As World War I began, he trained for the Royal Naval Air Service in Toronto and in England, qualifying as a pilot in 1916. He became a fighter pilot, and in the course of the war achieved the highest score in the RNAS, and second highest score of any Canadian pilot. Nicknamed “Collie,” he was leader of his Black Squadron, so named because the pilots had painted their planes black – his own plane was “Black Maria.” In 1919, he was sent with the 47th squadron to help White Russian forces against the Bolsheviks (a fiasco); he later commanded the No. 84 squadron in Egypt and Persia and then Wing No. 5 in the Second Italo-Abyssinian War. He was named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1921. At the start of World War II, he was promoted to Air Commodore in the RAF, commanding the No. 204 “Egypt Group” (later known as the Desert Air Force), the assignment of which he was proudest, as his outnumbered pilots bested their Italian adversaries. In 1941, he was involuntarily retired, possibly due to health problems, but he returned to his wife and two daughters in Canada, took up a second career in the mining industry, and lived to 92.

Joseph Grose Colmer was born on January 3, 1856, in Bloomsbury, Middlesex, England.

He was a Canadian civil servant and author who supported Anglo-Canadian cooperation. Born in England, he went to the Dominion as a youth and worked at the Merchants Bank of Canada. In 1880, he joined the Canadian Civil Service and in 1884, he served as the Private secretary to the first High Commissioner for Canada Sir Alexander Galt and his successors Charles Tupper and Lord Strathcona in London, England. In 1893, he left government service but continued to take a keen interest in Anglo-Canadian relations. He also served as Secretary on the Colonisation Board (1889–1926); Honorary Secretary of the Canadian War Contingent Association (1914–1919); and Honorary Secretary of Canada Club (1896–1922). He shared a Statist Prize of 1000 guineas in 1896 for an essay on the Commercial Federation of the Empire. He was also a member of the Tariff Commission (1904) and one of HM’s Lieutenants, City of London (1918). He was an advocate of an Imperial Preference system. He published numerous articles and essays on various aspects of life in Canada and its politics and industries. He wrote the book "Across the Canadian Prairies: A Two Months' Holiday in the Dominion" (1895).

In 1887, he married Margaret Cox (1861–?). He died on February 27, 1937, in London, England.

Edward Colonna (1862-1948) was born in Germany and studied in Belgium. In 1882 he emigrated to the United States. Initially he worked in New York at the Associated Artists, a group of interior decorators headed by Louis Comfort Tiffany. Later he worked as a railroad car designer from 1886 until 1888 for the Barney and Smith Railroad Car Manufacturing Co. in Dayton, OH. Colonna moved to Montreal in 1889 where he worked as an architect and an interior designer, primarily for the Canadian Pacific Railway Company, and for the company's vice-president, William Van Home. He designed railway cars and stations, as well as the interior of Van Home's sumptuous Sherbrooke Street house in Montreal. Colonna was instrumental in developing the Château style for Canadian Pacific's stations across Canada. After he left Montreal, Colonna returned to Europe where he worked from 1898 until 1903 for Samuel Bing's gallery in Paris, L'Art Nouveau. Colonna is best known as a pioneer of the Art Nouveau movement.

Edward Colonna (1862-1948) est né en Allemagne et a étudié en Belgique. En 1882, il a émigré aux États-Unis. Il a d'abord travaillé à New York chez Associated Artists, un groupe de décorateurs d'intérieur dirigé par Louis Comfort Tiffany, puis a travaillé comme dessinateur de wagons de train de 1886 à 1888 pour les fabricants de wagons Barney and Smith de Dayton (Ohio). Colonna s'est installé en 1989 à Montréal où il a exercé des activités d'architecte et de décorateur d'intérieur surtout pour la société Canadien Pacifique et pour le vice-président de cette société, William Van Horne. Il a dessiné des wagons de chemin de fer et des gares, de même que l'intérieur de la somptueuse résidence de Van Horne, rue Sherbrooke, à Montréal. Colonna a contribué à donner un style Château aux gares du Canadien Pacifique d'un bout à l'autre du Canada. Après son départ de Montréal, Colonna est retourné en Europe où il a travaillé, de 1898 à 1903, pour l'Art Nouveau, la galerie d'art parisienne de Samuel Bing. Colonna s'est surtout fait connaître pour son rôle de pionnier dans le mouvement Art Nouveau.