Thomas Davies King was born in 1819 in Bristol, Gloucestershire, England.

He was an engineer, optical and mathematical instruments maker, and author. He exhibited two achromatic microscopes and a photographic chamber at the 1855 Paris International Exhibition. He moved to Canada in 1858 and was employed for a few years as a meteorologist by the Grand Trunk Railway. He made a series of valuable experiments on the Victoria Bridge during its construction with instruments he invented and manufactured. His principal interests seem to have been in the fields of art and literature. He was a founding member of The Montreal Sketching Club. In literature his special concern was Shakespeare. He was an ardent collector of all works relating to Shakespeare and was one of the founders of the Montreal Shakespeare Club. In 1864, on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of Shakespeare's birth, he secured the endowment of a Shakespeare Gold Medal at McGill University, given annually to the graduating student with the highest standing in English language and literature. The Montreal Shakespeare Club called him the "Father of Shakespearean study in Montreal." He was also an editor of The Daily News and The Spectator. Among the books and pamphlets King published, are "Bacon Versus Shakespeare: A Plea for the Defendant" (1875), "Meteorology and its Professors" (1872), and "Photographic Selections: With Descriptive Letter Press" (1863, co-written with Canadian photographer W. Notman). After his death in 1884, his splendid Shakespearean library was purchased by the Hon. Donald A. Smith and W.C. Macdonald, Esq. (better known as Lord Strathcona and Sir William Macdonald) and presented to McGill University library.

In 1844, he married Anna Reed (1822–1887). He died on November 8, 1884, in Montreal, Quebec.

Moses King was born on April 13, 1853, in London, England.

He was an editor and publisher of travel guidebooks. He grew up in St. Louis, Missouri. After working for several years, he returned to school and graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy in 1879 and Harvard College in 1881. He published his first guidebook while still in college, titled “Harvard and Its Surroundings.” After college he held a series of jobs in the publishing industry, working for Science magazine, Bradstreet's magazine, and Rand-Avery Co. From 1878 onward, he steadily published travel guidebooks and in 1888, he formally established the Moses King Corporation. He published numerous King's illustrated publications about Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, and other places in the U.S. The books received positive reviews and were published in several editions.

In 1881, he married Bertha M. Cloyer (1860–1941). He died on June 12, 1909, in New York, New York, and is buried in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Physicist Louis Vessot King was born in Toronto, and graduated with a B.A from McGill in 1905 at the age of nineteen. Encouraged by Ernest Rutherford to continue his study of physics, King went to Cambridge where he received his B.A. in 1908. In 1915 he was awarded a D.Sc. from McGill. King's long teaching career at McGill began in 1910 with his appointment as sessional Lecturer in physics. He became Assistant Professor in 1913, Associate Professor in 1915, and was Macdonald Professor of Physics from 1920 until his retirement in 1938. King's major research and publishing interests lay in fog alarm research, applications of electromagnetism, heat convection, and radiation. He developed the gyromagnetic electron theory, invented the hot-wire anemometer and worked on methods of submarine detection during World War I. He passed away in 1956.