Henry Alleyne Nicholson was born on September 11, 1844, in Penrith, Cumberland, England.

He was a British paleontologist and zoologist. He was educated at Appleby Grammar School and then studied sciences at the universities of Göttingen (Ph.D., 1866) and Edinburgh (D.Sc., 1867; M.D., 1869). In 1869, he became a lecturer in natural history at the extra-mural classes linked to the University of Edinburgh. In 1871, he was appointed professor of natural history at the University of Toronto, Ontario; in 1874, professor of biology at the Durham College of Science, Ontario, and in 1875, professor of natural history at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland. This last post he held until 1882 when he became Regius Professor of natural history at the University of Aberdeen. His original work was mainly on fossil invertebrates (graptolites, stromatoporoids, and corals), but he also did much fieldwork, especially in England’s Lake District. In 1870, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and in 1897, a Fellow of the Royal Society of London. He was awarded the Lyell Medal by the Geological Society in 1888.

In 1867, he married Isabella Hutchison. He died on January 19, 1899, in Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Scotland.

Edward Williams Byron Nicholson was born on March 16, 1849, in St. Helier, Jersey, Channel Islands.

He was a British author and librarian. In 1867, he went to Trinity College, Oxford, as a classical scholar, winning the Gaisford Prize for Greek verse (1871) and the Hall Houghton junior Greek Testament (1872). After a brief spell of teaching at the Rookery School in Headington, Oxford, Nicholson was appointed librarian of the London Institution in 1873. He reinvigorated the organization, which promoted education through lectures and a library and helped increase its activities, membership and income, as well as the quality of its library. An international conference of librarians was held in London in 1877, leading with his help to the foundation of the Library Association of the United Kingdom and the Metropolitan Free Libraries Committee. He resigned from the Library Association Council in 1881 and applied for the position of Bodleian Librarian at the University of Oxford. Nicholson instituted several reforms and improvements to the library. He obtained more space for the library in the rooms of nearby buildings, changed the system of cataloguing, acquired more books, and introduced open access to some reference books in the Radcliffe Camera. However, these changes had internal opponents, including Falconer Madan, the senior Sub-Librarian (and Nicholson's eventual successor). The battles between Nicholson and some of his staff, which included anonymous complaints in newspapers, were an ongoing problem and affected his health. He suffered a breakdown in 1901 and collapsed twice in the street in 1907. His absences from work increased, and he suffered a further relapse in 1909. Suspicious of the curators' motives, he resisted all their suggestions that he should take a leave of absence until forced to do so late in February 1912. Outside the library, he enjoyed chess, swimming, cycling, and writing limericks. He was noted for his kindness and consideration and was particularly appreciated by junior staff at the library. Nicholson was an early advocate of animal rights. He argued in his book “The Rights of an Animal” (1879) that animals have the same natural right to life and liberty that humans do.

In 1876, he married Helen Grant (1850–1938). He died on March 17, 1912, in Oxford, England.

English printer and antiquarian.

Robert Nicholls was born in Montréal on February 18th, 1913. He was educated at McGill University, obtaining his B.A. in 1933, M.Sc. in 1935, and Ph.D. in chemistry in 1936. He also undertook post-doctoral work at Cornell University, the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, and Cambridge University in his area of specialization, high polymers. He was appointed Lecturer in chemistry at McGill in 1937 and Assistant Professor in 1940. During the Second World War, Nicholls was part of a group of researchers at McGill charged with developing explosives, notably RDX. From 1946 until his retirement, Nicholls was Associate Professor of chemistry, as well as serving as Associate Dean and Secretary of the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research. Nicholls is also an authority on the history of science; he collected and catalogued the Chemistry Department's library of historic works on chemistry. For his work in establishing the Canadian Railroad Museum, he was awarded the Order of Canada in 1984 and received an Award of Merit from the Canadian Railroad Historical Association in 1990. Nicholls married Mable E. Miner in 1945 and had two daughters. He passed away in 2007.

A native of Montréal, John Nicholls received from McGill University his B.A. in 1930, M.D.,C.M. in 1934, and M.Sc. in 1935. He entered private practice in Montréal as an ophthalmologist in 1938. Nicholls also taught at McGill University as Assistant Professor of ophthalmology from 1950 to 1956 and as Associate Professor of ophthalmology from 1957 until his retirement in 1970.

A native of Shotley Bridge, England, Albert G. Nicholls came to Montréal as a boy. After obtaining his B.A. (1890), M.A. (1893) and M.D. (1894) from McGill, he undertook post-graduate study in Germany and Austria. He received his D.Sc. in 1909, and worked as a pathologist at the Royal Victoria and Montreal General Hospitals. He was Assistant Professor of pathology at McGill from 1904 to 1916, and Assistant Professor of bacteriology from 1908 until 1911. In 1914, he went to Dalhousie University as Professor of pathology and bacteriology, and was appointed Pathologist for Nova Scotia. He returned to Montréal in 1925 and in 1929 became editor of the Canadian Medical Association's Journal. He retired in 1943.