John Mason Cook was born on January 13, 1834, in Market Harborough, Leicester, England.

He was the son of Thomas Cook (1808-1892), the founder of the Thomas Cook Travel Agency. In 1865, he was appointed head of a new office on Fleet Street, London. An energetic man, he made an immediate impact, and the subsequent growth of the business was due much to the son as the father. In 1871, he entered into full partnership with his father and the firm became known as Thomas Cook & Son, with invested capital of over £250,000. He travelled on business an average of 50,000 miles a year between 1855 and 1873. The travel agency offered railway excursions around Britain, tours of Europe and in 1866, it took tourists to America to see scenes of the recent Civil war. By the end of the decade, it was taking people to Egypt and the Holy Land. In 1878, Cook expanded the business into a lucrative foreign banking and money exchange department and helped develop travellers' cheques. He was also a Temperance President. At the time of his death, the gross value of his estate was assessed at £390,000. Cook was succeeded in business by his three sons: Frank Henry, Ernest Edward, and Thomas Albert.

In 1861, he married Emma Hodges (1834-1902). He died on March 4, 1899, in Walton on Thames, Chertsey, Surrey, England.

John Cook was born on April 13, 1805, in Dumfriesshire, Scotland.

He was a clergyman, educated at Glasgow and Edinburgh Universities. In 1835, he was ordained a priest of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland and in 1836, he came to Canada where he obtained a position at St. Andrew's Church in Quebec City. As its minister for many years, he played a prominent part in bringing about the union of Presbyterians in Canada in 1875. He participated in the Quebec Charitable Firewood Society, a Protestant anglophone body that bought firewood in summer at low prices for winter distribution to the destitute. In 1845, he helped organize a major relief effort for the victims of the fires in the suburbs of Saint-Roch and Saint-Jean. In 1848, he published "The Advantages of Life Assurance to the Working Classes". In 1860, he was appointed a commissioner responsible for foundlings and indigent sick in the district of Quebec. He was a member of the Quebec Library Association, the St Andrew’s Society, and the Quebec Bible Society. Cook was deeply committed to promoting education. He was one of the founders of Queen's University, Kingston, and was its principal in 1857-1858. In 1861, he was appointed principal of Morrin College, Quebec and he retained this position until his death. Cook was also a member of the Board of Governors of McGill College. In 1880, the degree of LL.D. was conferred on him by Queen's University, Kingston.

About 1837 he married Eliza Airth (1805-1881). He died on March 31, 1892, in Quebec City, Quebec.

Richard Plunkett Cooke was born on October 12, 1824, in Parsonstown, Ireland.

He studied engineering at Trinity College, Dublin. In 1852, he came to Canada and obtained a position as assistant engineer on the Toronto and Guelph Railway that subsequently became part of the Grand Trunk Railway. Cooke became a divisional engineer in charge of the line west of Toronto. In 1858, he was transferred to the central division and had charge of the Grand Trunk line between Montreal and Toronto. In 1861, he became General Manager of the Brockville and Ottawa Railway. About 1869, he participated in the successful completion of the Boston, Barre & Gardner Railroad in Massachusetts. He spent the last three years of his life working on many important projects in Vancouver, B.C. He served as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Columbia and President of St. Patrick's Society in Vancouver. In 1888, he was elected a member of the Canadian Society of Civil Engineers.

In 1853, he married Anna Maria Plunkett (1827-1893). He died on January 27, 1892, in Vancouver, British Columbia.