Ānanda Āchārya was born on December 29, 1881.

He was an Indian mystic, poet, philosopher, pacifist, and professor known as “the sage on Mt. Tron.” In 1917, he settled in a hut on Mt. Tron, Alvdal, Norway, where he meditated and wrote most of his books. Ānanda Āchārya was the first Indian yogi and sannyasi with an academic background who came to the Nordic countries to present Indian philosophy to the Western World. He wrote more than thirty titles, covering a variety of themes and genres, including lyrics, songs, dramas, allegories, specialist literature dealing with philosophy and spirituality, and a cookery book. He wrote mostly in English, though some works were published in Norwegian and Swedish. He addressed much of his writing to the general reader rather than the specialist. His most prominent idea, which he carried with him from India, is about the University of Peace.

He died on May 8, 1945, in Alvdal Municipality, Norway.

British naval historian Oliver Warner was educated at Cauis College, Cambridge (B.A. 1925), and worked for the publishing firm of Chatto and Windus as a reader from 1926 until 1941. From 1941 until 1947 he was on the staff of the Admiralty, serving as Secretary of the Naval Honours and Awards Committee (1946-1947) and on the War Artists Advisory Committee (1944-1946). Warner was Director of Publications for the British Council (1947-1963) and was elected to the boards of many maritime museums and naval history societies. He published many works, largely in the 1960s, on naval history, including studies of maritime painting, Joseph Conrad, Lord Nelson and the Royal Navy.

Mathematician Charles Babbage was born near Teignmouth in Devonshire and educated at Cambridge University (B.A. 1814, M.S. 1817). While still a student, Babbage and his friends Herschel and Peacock produced translations and expansions of continental works on calculus which served to spark a mathematical revival in England. As early as 1812, he was developing the idea of calculating mathematical tables using machinery, an enterprise that occupied most of his life. By 1822 he had constructed several prototypes, and received a government grant to pursue his research. Financial and personal disputes brought this work to a halt in 1828, but during the hiatus which followed, Babbage designed an even more sophisticated, flexible machine, 'programmed' by punch cards, with six orders of differences, and printing capacity. Though his concept was acknowledged to be brilliant and workable, Babbage never raised enough money to build the machine.

Wilfred Grenfell was a doctor and medical missionary born in Cheshire, England. He studied medicine at London University. After graduating in 1887 he joined the Royal National Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen (the Fishermen’s Mission), a British charitable organization dedicated to providing material, medical, and spiritual support to fishermen at out sea and settled in remote locations. In 1892, Grenfell lead the first medical mission to Labrador, backed by the Fishermen’s Mission. The mission, later known as the Grenfell Labrador Medical Mission, provided medical support to fishermen stationed along the Labrador coast and to their communities, including some Inuit, Innu, and Southern Inuit communities. Grenfell established Labrador’s first hospital in Battle Harbour in 1893, supplemented by medical vessels that traveled between settlements. In addition to his work as a doctor, Grenfell took an active role in fundraising for the mission, writing books and arranging speaking tours, especially in the United States. In 1909, Grenfell married Anne Elizabeth Caldwell MacClanahan, who took an active role in the mission and with whom he had a daughter and two sons. After the Fishermen’s Mission withdrew their support from the mission in 1912, Grenfell incorporated the organization under the name “Grenfell International Association” in 1914 and continued fundraising efforts. By the time of his retirement in 1932, the mission had expanded to six hospitals and four hospital ships, as well as several nursing stations, boarding schools, a seaman’s institute in St. John’s, Newfoundland, and a number of cooperatives designed to help the fishing communities generate wealth and become more self-sufficient. Grenfell was awarded the Order of St Michael and St George in 1906 and knighted in 1927. He died in 1940 in Vermont.

Charles Burney was an organist and music historian born on April 7, 1726, in Shrewsbury, England. He studied music and was first apprenticed as an assistant to his half-brother James, who worked at St. Mary's Church, Shrewsury, as an organist. In 1744, Charles became apprenticed to composer Thomas Arne and in 1746 was employed as a musician by Fulke Greville until his marriage to Esther Sleepe (approximately 1725-1762) in 1749. After his marriage, Burney worked as an organist and music instructor. Esther Burney died in 1762 and Charles Burney married Elizabeth Allen (1728-1796) in 1767, with whom he had two children. Burney recieved a DMus from Oxford University in 1769 after which he left on a musical tour of the European continent. As a music historian, he published numerous volumes throughout the 1770s and 1780s on European music. He suffered from ill health beginning in the 1790s and experienced a stroke that paralysed one hand in 1807. He died in 1814 in Chelsea.