Arthur James Balfour was born on July 25, 1848, in Whittingehame, East Lothian, Scotland.

He was a British politician and philosopher. He was educated at Eaton College (1861–1866) and Trinity College, Cambridge (1866–1869). His political career started in 1874 when he was elected Conservative Member of Parliament for Hertford and later for Manchester East (1885-1906). In 1878, he became private secretary to his uncle Lord Salisbury, the Prime Minister of the UK. After several political positions in Scotland and Ireland, Balfour, a great parliamentary debater, became a Leader of the House of Commons and First Lord of the Treasury in 1891. He served as Prime Minister from 1902 to 1905 and as Foreign Secretary from 1916 to 1919. He is perhaps best remembered for his World War I statement (the Balfour Declaration) expressing official British approval of Zionism. Balfour received the Order of Merit in 1916 and a Garter knighthood, followed by an earldom, in 1922. He was Chancellor of both Cambridge and Edinburgh universities, a Fellow of the Royal Society, president of the British Academy, the British Association and the Aristotelian Society, and co-founder of the Scots Philosophical Club. In 1924, he was appointed Hon. President of the East Lothian Antiquarian and Field Naturalists’ Society. He was the author of “A Defence of Philosophic Doubt” (1879).

He died unmarried on March 19, 1930, in Woking, Surrey, England.

Joseph Crawhall II was the son of Joseph Crawhall (1793-1853), an amateur artist, lithographer, and ropery business owner in Newcastle-upon-Type. Joseph Crawhall the second was born in Newcastle in 1821 and a writer and artist, heavily influenced by early modern woodcuts and the work of Thomas Bewick.

John William Cunliffe was born at Bolton, England, in 1865. He was educated at the University of London and at Columbia University. He was a lecturer in English at McGill University from 1899 to 1905, and Associate Professor from 1906 to 1907. At Columbia University, Cunlife was a Lecturer in 1907, and Professor of English and Associate Director of the School of Journalism from 1912 to 1920. He published a number of works, many concerning English literature.

George Nathaniel Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon was born on January 11, 1859, in Kedleston, Derbyshire, England.

He was a British statesman. He was educated at Wixenford School, Eton College, and Balliol College, Oxford, where he was elected President of the Oxford Union and made a Fellow of All Souls College in 1883. He became Assistant Private Secretary to Lord Salisbury in 1885, and in 1886, he entered Parliament as Member for Southport, Lancashire. He served as Under-Secretary of State for India in 1891–1892 and Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in 1895–1898. Curzon travelled extensively around the world: Russia and Central Asia (1888–1889), Persia (1889 –1890), Siam, French Indochina, Korea (1892), Afghanistan, and the Pamirs (1894). He published several books describing central and eastern Asia and was awarded the Patron's Gold Medal of the Royal Geographical Society for his exploration of the source of the river Amu Darya. In 1899, he was appointed Viceroy of India and was created a Peer of Ireland as Baron Curzon of Kedleston, in the County of Derby. During his tenure, Curzon ordered the restoration of the Taj Mahal and took a personal interest in India’s artistic and cultural heritage. He resigned in 1905 and upon his return to England, he became Chancellor of the University of Oxford. After the death of his wife in 1906, he temporarily retired from politics and indulged in his passion for the collection of art treasures and old buildings. He returned to politics as President of the Air Board (1916-1917), Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (1919-1924), Lord President of the Council (1924-1925), and Leader of the House (1916-1925). Curzon Hall, the home of the faculty of science at the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh, is named after him. Several parks, gates, and roads in various cities in India are named in his honour.

In 1895, he married Mary Victoria Leiter (1871–1906), and in 1917, he remarried Grace Elvina Hinds (1879–1958). He died on March 20, 1925, in London, England.