Hunt was a British journalist.

Geochemist Thomas Sterry Hunt was born in Norwich, Connecticut, and educated at Yale. In 1846 Hunt, then an employee of the Vermont Geological Survey, was hired by William Logan as a chemist for the Geological Survey of Canada. While at the survey, he undertook routine tasks of field exploration, chemical analysis of minerals, mining surveys, and administration. From his empirical laboratory experience he developed an interest in theoretical problems, which eventually produced the totally chemistry-based geology of his revolutionary "Report on the Chemistry of the Earth" (1870). Hunt's prolific publishing, as well as his important discoveries on petroleum and the chemistry of crystalline rocks, earned him an international reputation. In 1872, unsatisfied with the new administration of the Geological Survey, Hunt departed for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He stayed there only until 1878, for though he had taught at Laval (1856-1863) and McGill (1862-1868), he did not enjoy educational work. Hunt never again found a truly remunerative or satisfying position. However, he remained a very active member of numerous scientific organizations, including the Royal Society of Canada, of which he was president in 1884, continued to publish, and revisited Canada frequently.

Born and raised in Montreal, author Anna Rebecca Gale was the oldest daughter of the well-known family of Judge Samuel Gale, a judge in the Supreme Court of Lower Canada. Following her father’s death in 1865, Anna and her two sisters traveled throughout Europe. She published her first book of poems, “Studies for poems,” in 1877, the year before her marriage in 1878. At the age of 38, she married American geologist and chemist Thomas Sterry Hunt (1826-1892), who was already a famous scientist. He had been in Canada since 1847 working on the Canadian Geological Survey under Sir William Logan, a job he continued to do until 1872. He also taught at Université Laval in 1857 and at McGill University from 1862 until at least 1868. He was a member of many organizations, often as president, and he contributed to many scientific journals. The couple lived in Boston while Hunt was teaching geology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; as a faculty wife, Anna met various literary figures such as Henry Wadworth Longfellow and Oliver Wendell Holmes. She and Hunt had no children and separated in 1884. Anna wrote a second book of poems entitled “In Bohemia and other studies for poems” in 1905. In 1914, she published two novels, After Many Days and Disturbers; she wrote the latter under the pseudonym "Claude Berwick Canadienne." She died in London and is buried in Mount Royal Cemetery in Montreal.

Born in Hampton, New Brunswick, on April 30, 1905, John Humphrey was educated at Mount Allison and McGill University. He married Jeanne Godreau in 1929 and after her death, married Dr. Margaret Kunstler in 1981. Humphrey had one brother, Douglas, and a sister, Ruth. His cousin, Jack Humphrey, became a prominent Canadian painter. After a career in private legal practice in Montreal with Wainwright, Elder and MacDougall, Humphrey joined the McGill teaching staff in 1936 as a sessional lecturer in the Faculty of Law and became the Gale Professor of Law in 1946. Although named as McGill's Dean of Law in 1946 he never served in that function, instead he was drafted by the United Nations to become the first director of the Human Rights Division of the United Nations. On leave from McGill, Humphrey served in his United Nations post until 1966. The author of the first draft of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Humphrey was a key player behind the United Nation's approval of the declaration in 1948. During his tenure as director Humphrey pursued such human rights issues as the situation of women, freedom of the press, and racial discrimination. After his distinguished career with the United Nations, Humphrey returned to teach in McGill's Faculty of Law and continued his advocacy of human rights issues and causes.

Humphrey became an internationally renowned authority on human rights who spoke and wrote frequently on this subject throughout his life. Instrumental in the founding of the Canadian Human Rights Foundation and the Canadian Section of Amnesty International, he also served as president of both organisations. He was a member of the Royal Commission on the Status of Women in Canada and also lobbied extensively for such diverse causes as rights for imprisoned Greek lawyers, Canadian Hong Kong veterans, and Korean "comfort women", or survivors of the Japanese military system of sexual slavery during the Second World War. Humphrey was the author of numerous articles on international politics and legal subjects and the author of two books on the subject of human rights: Human Rights and the United Nations: A Great Adventure, published in 1984, and No Distant Millennium: The International Law of Human Rights, published in 1989.

Humphrey's energetic commitment to various organisations dedicated to human rights and world peace has been acknowledged by numerous honours and awards, including the United Nations Award for outstanding achievement in human rights, Officer of the Order of Canada, and the National Order of Quebec, World Legal Scholar Award, and World Federalists of Canada Peace Prize Award. Recognised as a pioneering figure in the field of human rights in the post-World War II era, John P. Humphrey died on March 14, 1995.