Novelist Hugh MacLennan was born in Glace Bay, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. After earning his B.A. from Dalhousie (1928), he went to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar (B.A., M.A. 1932) and finally to Princeton, where he received master's and doctoral degrees in classics in 1935. MacLennan taught classics at Lower Canada College from 1935 to 1945, when he joined the English Department at McGill. He retired as Emeritus Professor in 1980. MacLennan's novels explore universal themes through particular Canadian experiences, such as the Halifax explosion (Barometer Rising, 1941) or the relations of French and English in Québec (Two Solitudes, 1945). Other titles include the Watch that Ends the Night (1959), Each Man's Son (1951), and Return of the Sphinx (1967). MacLennan has also published essays and articles on the Canadian character, landscape, and history.

Sir Donald Macmaster was born on September 3, 1846, in Williamstown, Glengarry, Ontario.

He was a Canadian lawyer and a politician in both Canada and the United Kingdom. He studied law at McGill University, was called to the Quebec bar in 1871, and set up practice in Montreal. He served as Crown Prosecutor for many cases. He was called to the Ontario bar and appointed Queen's Counsel in 1882. He represented Glengarry in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1879 to 1882 and in the House of Commons of Canada as a Conservative member from 1883 to 1887, when he lost his seat. In 1905, Macmaster emigrated to the United Kingdom and settled in London. In 1910, he was elected to the House of Commons as a Conservative member for the Chertsey division of Surrey, holding the seat until his death. He was created a baronet in 1921.

In 1880, he married Janet Macdonald (1860–1883) and in 1891, he remarried Ella Virginia DeFord (1864–1923). He died on March 3, 1922, in Chelsey, London, England.