R. de H. Tupper was born in Wimbleton, England, and educated at the Royal College of Music. He played bassoon in various symphony orchestras in Wales and London before coming to Montréal in about 1912. He joined the McGill conservatory as instructor in 1923, served as instructor in bassoon from 1924 to 1926 and 1928 to 1934, and taught orchestral playing from 1935 to 1946. He also lectured on chamber music, orchestral music and opera from 1949 until 1955. He acted as the Conservatory's secretary (1928-1947) and vice-director (1939-1948), as well as conducting its orchestra and choir, and administering its local examinations across the country. He formally retired from the Conservatory in 1948, but continued to teach both there and at the Eastern Townships Conservatory throughout the 1950s.

Martin Farquhar Tupper was born on July 17, 1810, in London, England.

He was an English poet and writer. He was educated at Christ Church, Oxford (B.A., 1832; M.A., 1835; D.C.L., 1847). In 1835, he was called to the Bar at Lincoln’s Inn, but he never practiced as a barrister due to his stammering problem. Tupper began his literary career by publishing an essay “Sacra Poesis” in 1832. In 1838, he published his book "Proverbial Philosophy: a Book of Thoughts and Arguments," which embarked on a quarter of a century of phenomenal popular success with thirty-eight editions and numerous translations. Literary earnings, together with the patrimony he inherited in 1844, enabled Tupper to lead the life of a country gentleman at Albury House in Surrey and to support his family. He continued publishing books, e. g., "Geraldine" (1838), "An Author’s Mind" (1841), "The Crock of Gold" (1844), "A Thousand Lines" (1845), and "Probabilities" (1847). In 1845, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and received the gold medal for science and literature from the King of Prussia. He was an early supporter of the Student Volunteer Movement and did much to promote good relations between Britain and America. In 1851, he embarked on a wildly successful tour of the eastern United States and eastern Canada. In 1876, he returned to the USA for another tour and carried out a series of public readings.

In 1835, he married Isabella Devis (1811–1885). He died on November 29, 1889, in Albury, Surrey, England.

Sir Charles Tupper was born in Amherst, Nova Scotia, and earned his medical degree from Edinburgh University in 1843. He left a successful medical practice in 1855 to enter the provincial assembly of Nova Scotia. Provincial secretary from 1856 to 1860, and premier from 1864 to 1867, he took a leading role in the movement for Confederation. From 1867 to 1884 he sat as a conservative in the Federal House of Commons. He was Canada's first Minister of Railways and Canals (1879-1884), and introduced the bill for the C.P.R. charter (1881). From 1884 to 1896 he served as High Commissioner to London, and he was Prime Minister for a brief period in 1896. Thereafter Tupper lead the Opposition until 1900, when an election defeat occasioned his retirement from public life.

Born in Vancouver, B.C., Barbara Logan Tunis, graduated from the University of British Columbia in 1944 with a Public Health Diploma. She received her nurse's training at the Royal Jubilee Hospital, Victoria, British Columbia and served in the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps from 1944 to 1945. Entering McGill in 1945, she was one of the first individuals to obtain a Bachelor of Nursing degree in 1946. In 1966, the McGill University Press published her history of the School for Graduate Nurses, In Caps and Gowns: The Story of the School for Graduate Nurses McGill University, 1920-1964.

Tundra Books/Les Livres Toundra was founded in Montreal by May Ebbitt Cutler in 1967, as an independent publishing house. Under Ms. Cutler's dynamic leadership, the Tundra imprint became synonymous with children's books publishing, featuring titles such as William Kurelek's A Prairie Boy's Winter, Ann Blade's Mary of Mile 18, Roch Carrier's Le chandail de hockey and Joan Finnegan's Look! The Land is Growing Giants, A Very Canadian Legend, with drawings by Richard Pelham. From 1971 to 1978, May Cutler operated an American branch of Tundra in Plattsburgh, New York for distribution purposes to the United States. In the thirty years of the company's existence, and until its sale in December of 1995 to McClelland and Stewart, May Cutler sought and published talented artists and authors from the most diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds. Today, McClelland and Stewart operates the company as a separate entity, producing and marketing books under the Tundra imprint.