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The Willow Bank Cemetery was incorporated 10 April, 1880. The cemetery consisted of 9 acres of land donated by John W. Barss, Warden of the County of Kings, for use as a public burying ground. The Corporation consisted of 12 trustees, and lot holders (anyone owning a lot of 100 square feet or more). Business was conducted primarily by 4 officers: President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer. It was the Secretary’s duty to records the minutes of meetings, maintain a book of all lots sales, a book of receipts and expenditures, and a book of interments (which included name, age, residence, occupation and lot number of person being buried).

Born in Dominica, Dr. Dorothy Abike Wills (Green), B.Sc., M.S.W., M.A., PhD., LL.D.,DHL (Honoris Causa), C.M., graduated from Mount Saint Vincent College in 1956 with a Bachelor of Science, later obtaining additional degrees at McGill University, Concordia University, and California's Pacific Western University. Dr. Wills went on to become a social worker and educator and spent much of her career dedicated to social justice for racial minorities.
In June 2000, she retired as the Dean of the Faculty of Applied Technologies at Vanier College, Quebec. She served as a member of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Convention Refugee Determination Division, for six years. An Educator in the areas of Business Education, Social Work, and Andragogy (the method by which adults learn), she has taught at the High School, CEGEP and University levels. She has been named to Federal, Provincial and Municipal Committees; and has had extensive involvement in various Black Community organizations. She is the recipient of several awards, including the Mount Saint Vincent University Alumni Jubilee Award of Distinction, an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from both Concordia University (1989) Dalhousie University (1996), an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Mount Saint Vincent University (2007), the Order of Canada (1989), the Martin Luther King Junior Award of Excellence, the Ministers Award for Excellence in Race Relations, and, has been named Woman of the Year by Salon de la Femme du Quebec.

Budge Marjorie (nee Archibald) Wilson was born in 1927 to Mr. Justice Maynard Brown and Helen MacGregor Archibald in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She was educated in Halifax, graduated from Dalhousie University (B.A., Philosophy & Psychology) in 1949, completed a Diploma in Education in 1953; a Phys. Ed. certificate; and undertook graduate studies in English at the University of Toronto from 1949-1951. At Dalhousie Budge met fellow student Alan Wilson; they married in 1953 and had two daughters: Glynis Marie and Andrea Kathryn. For 33 years the couple resided in Peterborough, Ontario, where Alan was a professor at Trent University. When he retired in 1989 the Wilsons returned to Nova Scotia’s South Shore where they continue to reside.

Budge Wilson has had a multifaceted career. Although best known as a Nova Scotian children’s author, she has been a teacher, illustrator, photographer, and fitness instructor. From 1951 to 1952 she taught English and art at the Halifax Ladies’ College (now Armbrae Academy), from 1953 to 1957 she worked at the University of Toronto’s Institute of Child Study doing filing, then editing and art work. She also worked at the Toronto Public Library in 1954, and at the Acadia University nursery school from 1956 to 1957 in Wolfville, N.S. In 1968 she returned to teaching with the Peterborough County Board of Education and Young Women’s Association, in Peterborough Ontario, as a fitness instructor; a position she held until 1987.

Wilson began writing full time in 1978 and published her first book in 1984 when she was 56. Since then she has published 30 books and novels for readers of all ages which have been sold in 13 countries and translated into 10 languages. Her most recent book is Before Green Gables, which has been turned into an animated series in Japan. Her short stories have also been published in anthologies, Braille, and as audio books. CBC Radio and Television have aired readings and dramatizations of her works, as well as author profiles. She has also given readings, talks, and workshops in libraries, schools, and universities throughout Canada.

Wilson’s work has received much acclaim. The Leaving was featured on the American Library Association's 1994 list of "The 75 best children's books of the last 25 years. In 2004 she was made a Member of the Order of Canada and was awarded the Distinguished Alumnae Award from Halifax’s Armbrae Academy; in 2003 she was awarded the Municipality of Halifax Mayor’s Award for Cultural Achievement in Literature; she has also earned First Prize, CBC Literary Competition; 19 Canadian Children’s Book Centre “Our Choice” awards; the City of Dartmouth Book Award; the Canadian Library Association Young Adult Award; the Marianna Dempster Award; the Ann Connor Brimer Award; the Lilla Stirling Award; and she was short-listed for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best Book, Canada-Caribbean Region, for The Leaving. Wilson received the Dalhousie University Alumni Achievement Award in 2008. She received an honourary degree (L.L.D) from Dalhousie University in 2010 and Mount Saint Vincent University (D.Hum.L) in 2012. Wilson was made a member of the Order of Nova Scotia in 2011.

The Wilson Family owned several businesses including: Wilsons Heating, Propane, Mechanical, Plumbing, and Security, as well as Wilson's and ESSO Gas Stations. Dave Wilson started the Kerr Controls Ltd. at the age of 20 and developed what is now Ski Wentworth with his father. He co-founded the Truro Bearcat Rugby Team in the late 1950's and was involved in the creation of the Cobequid Spartans Gymnastics Club in the 1970's.

Contractor. Frank was the son of Nathaniel Frank and Julia (McLeod) Wilson and was born in Truro, NS. His wife was Lucretia Ross and their two sons were George Willard and Earle Albert. His education was obtained in the Truro Public Schools. As president of Wilson Construction Company, he played a prominent part in rebuilding Halifax after the explosion of 1917. Some of the buildings in Truro which he built were the First United (Presbyterian) Church, Bank of Nova Scotia, the Fire Hall, the Intercolonial Railway Station and the Colchester County Court House on Church Street. He was the first President of the Maritime Amateur Hockey Association. He was a Methodist and was buried in the Robie St. Cemetery, Truro, NS.

George Earle Wilson taught history at Dalhousie University from 1919-1969 and served as Dean of Arts and Science from 1945-1955.

Rachel Elizabeth Cooke was born on 20 October 1900 in Portaupique Mountain, Colchester County, Nova Scotia, to Mitchell Cooke and Margaret Ellen (Giddens) Cooke. Rachel trained to be a registered nurse at the Halifax Children's Hospital, graduating in 1925, and worked much of her life in Truro, NS. She married J. Arthur Wilson and the couple lived in Truro. Wilson was very involved all of her life in the Women's Institute of Nova Scotia, for which she served for a time as President and Treasurer. She was also very involved with the Baptist Church. She died on 9 July 1995.

Gil Winham was a political science professor and leading scholar on the political and legal dimensions of international trade negotiations. Born in New York City on 11 May 1938 to Alfred R. Winham and Margery Rankin Post, he served in the United States Navy for three years prior to earning a diploma in international law from the University of Manchester. After completing a doctorate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Winham taught at McMaster University. He joined Dalhousie University in 1975, where he remained until his retirement in 2003. He served as the Director of the Centre for Foreign Policy Study from 1975-1982 and was appointed Eric Dennis Memorial Professorship of Government and Political Science in 1992. His scholarly work and public service led to invitations as a Visiting Researcher to Harvard, Johns Hopkins, the University of Toronto, and El Colegio de Mexico, and to his election as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. He was also a regular instructor and consultant on trade policy simulation courses at the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva, and a member of dispute settlement panels of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Gil Winham died in Berwick, New Brunswick, on 1 January 2019.

Jane Barnes Wisdom was a pioneer in the social welfare movement in Canada. She was born March 1, 1884 to Freeman W. and Mary Bell (McQueen) Wisdom in Saint John, New Brunswick, the third of four children. After graduating from McGill University with a Bachelor of Arts in 1907, she worked as ‘visitor on staff’ at the Charity Organization Society of Montreal while living in their University Settlement residence. In June 1910, she attended one of the first diploma courses in social work at the New York School of Philanthropy, an experimental training program affiliated with Columbia University. She returned to Montreal for a brief time, then took employment with the Brooklyn Bureau of Charities 1912-1916 as executive director of 2 districts. In July of 1916 she was recruited by the new Bureau of Social Services of Halifax (also known as the Halifax Welfare Bureau), to be their first permanent “General Secretary” (today’s equivalent of executive director) and served there until 1921. She survived the Halifax Explosion of Dec 6, 1917, and played an active role in the recovery efforts, being seconded to the Halifax Relief Commission as Supervisor of the Rehabilitation Department. In that role, she organized the building of Community Houses for survivors. In 1920 she worked on the Nova Scotia Provincial Commission researching and reporting on Mother’s Allowances, wages and working conditions of women in Nova Scotia factories. In the summer of that year she traveled around the British Isles (United Kingdom). In 1921 she returned to Montreal to earn a graduate degree from the Department of Economics at McGill University. While there, she was part time instructor of social case work in their Department of Social Science and School of Social Work, until 1924. From 1925 to 1939 she worked as executive director for the Women’s Directory of Montreal, a social services agency specializing in the care of single parent families. In 1941 she conducted a study of the social conditions in the coal mining town of Glace Bay, NS for the Canada Welfare Council, working with fellow social worker Charlotte Whitton (later mayor of Ottawa). She stayed in Glace Bay as the town’s first welfare officer and developed their program of social services, from 1941 until retirement in 1952. She retired to Sutherlands River, Pictou County and died June 9, 1975 at the age of 91.

Rev. John Wiswall was a Church of England clergyman, born in Boston in 1731. He died in 1821 at Wilmot, Annapolis County, Nova Scotia. He was married twice: first to Mercy Minot of Brunswick, Maine with whom he had four children, and secondly to Margaret Hutchinson of New Jersey. Wiswall was the minister at Falmouth in New England when the Revolutionary War began. As a Loyalist, he was forced to flee to Boston with his family and he lost his house and property. After a time as the minister for several churches in England and as a Chaplain aboard a British ship, he was sent by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel to Cornwallis Township, Nova Scotia in 1783. He served in this area until his death in 1821.