Donald Roy Wiles (1924-2022), amateur linguist and chemistry professor, was born in Truro, Nova Scotia, Canada in August 1924 to Neil Douglas Wiles (1899-1983) and Hilda M. (Vaughan) Wiles (1896-1986). Educated in Amherst, then Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick he earned a Bachelor of Science degree 1946, and Bachelor of Education degree 1947. Before his career in chemistry took him to Norway, the United States, and Western Canada, he spent the summer of 1946 visiting his mother’s family in Martin’s Point, Lunenburg County. Both sides of the family could trace their roots back to the “Foreign Protestants” who first settled Lunenburg. While there he recorded the German language spoken by the elders of that community and wrote down some of the German customs persisting there. After earning his Ph.D. in nuclear chemistry from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States in 1953, he worked at the University of British Columbia 1955-1959, then joined the Chemistry Department faculty at Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario from 1959 until his retirement in September 1990. He continued teaching occasional courses in chemistry until just before his death on July 13, 2022 in Almonte, Ontario.

Sarah Ann Donaldson was born in July of 1885 to Captain John Henry and Elizabeth Ellen (Hirtle) Donaldson. Captain Donaldson was posted at Life Saving Station 3 on Sable Island, Nova Scotia, where the family lived in the late 1890s and early 1900s. John and Elizabeth Donaldson had several other children, including Robert, George, Mabel and Helen (Polly), at least some of whom were born on Sable.

It was on Sable Island that Sarah met her husband Reuben Alexander Naugle (sometimes Alexander Reuben Naugle, b. September 1878). After being a labourer there for several years, he was appointed Keeper of Sable Island’s #2 Station in June of 1904. They married in October 1904 and started their family, later moving on to Sable Island’s Life Saving Station #3.

The 1921 Census of Sable Island showed Sarah and Reuben still on the Island, now with a family of six children: Reuben (b. 1906), Ernest (b. 1908), Lawrence Robert (b. 1910), Dorothy Mabel May (b. May 4th 1913), Willard (b. ca. 1918), and Clyde (b. ca. 1920). When they left Sable Island (around 1924), the family settled in Eastern Passage, Nova Scotia.

Reuben Alexander Naugle died in 1961, and Sarah Ann Naugle in 1963.

Rob Richardson, Halifax Explosion survivor, was reportedly attending university in Halifax when the Halifax Explosion occurred on the morning of December 6, 1917. His family lived in Chipman, New Brunswick.

Howard Mitchener Stevenson Pentelow (1901-1963), Halifax Explosion survivor, was born March 18, 1901 in Guelph, Ontario, Canada to William (b.1861) and Maud (Stevenson) Pentelow (b.1871). Howard was a cadet attending the Royal Canadian Naval College in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada in December 1917. On December 6, 1917 Cadet Pentelow was in the College’s gunroom when the Explosion occurred. He was cut by window glass and blown through a closed door, received wounds to his face and one hand. In 1919 he became a midshipman with the Canadian Navy, then left the military, became an electrical engineer in Chicago, Illinois, United States employed with the Public Service Company of Northern Illinois. He married Naomi Frances Evadne Small (b.1902) in July 1928 in Toronto, Ontario, became a United States citizen in 1933. He died on 26 November 1963 in Rensselaer, Jasper, Indiana, USA.

Bridglal “Bridge” Pachai, B.A., M.A., Ph.D., D.C.L., is a respected educator, historian and author, born in Umbulwana, Natal, South Africa on November 30, 1927. He was educated in Ladysmith and graduated from the University of Natal with his Ph.D. in 1963. He taught at universities in Ghana and Malawi, then moved with his wife Leela and children to Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada in 1975 to teach history at Dalhousie University until 1977 when he became Director of Saint Mary’s University’s International Education Centre from 1977 to 1979. In September 1979 he took up the post of Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the newly established University of Sokoto, Nigeria. After six years he moved back to Halifax and served as Executive Director for the Black Cultural Centre of Nova Scotia, 1985 to 1989, then for Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission, 1989 to 1994. He visited South Africa during its transition from apartheid to democracy, in 1991 and 1995. In 1998 he taught for a year in The Gambia. During his career he was general editor of the “Peoples of the Maritimes” book series for Four East Publications, lectured, wrote 17 books and published numerous articles on Blacks in Canada and in Nova Scotia, South Africa, multiculturalism and human rights education. His books include “Beneath the Clouds of the Promised Land Volume 1 1600-1800” (Black Educators Association of NS, 1987) and “Volume 2 1800-1989" (Lancelot Press, 1991), “Peoples of the Maritimes: Blacks" (Four East Publications 1987, 1993), “Historic Black Nova Scotia" (Nimbus 2006), and two autobiographies “My Africa, My Canada” (1989) and “Accidental Opportunities” (Roseway 2007). For his dedication, his leadership and his experience in improving race relations and working towards greater appreciation of the Canadian cultural mosaic he was made a member of the Order of Canada in 2000.

Mark Edward Simkins (1954-2022) was a freelance photograph journalist and film maker in Halifax, Nova Scotia (NS), Canada and LaHave, Lunenburg County, NS. Born in 1954 in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, to military Captain Harold Edward “Ted” and Mary Shirley (Martindale) Simkins, Mark Simkins graduated high school in Peterborough, Ontario in 1973, then studied Journalism at Carleton University in Ottawa, 1974-1975, and Dalhousie University in Halifax 1977-1978. After University he worked as a reporter-photographer for the Truro Daily News 1979-1980, and sold photographs to the Canadian Press 1980-1981, and the Atlantic Bureau of United Press Canada (UPC) 1981-1982 under the name “Mark Simkins Photography”. In 1998 he moved from Halifax to LaHave NS where he sold photographs to local gift shops for re-sale and covered sports and town council meetings for the local newspapers, until 2003. Simkins also worked as a film technician and cinematographer until 2002. He served as president of the Nova Scotia Photographers Cooperative in 1986 and was a member of the Atlantic Filmmakers Coop (AFCOOP) with whom he directed the docu-drama “Mary and the Mayor: the Housing Crisis”, from 1988 to 1990. Mark Simkins died in Halifax NS on November 19, 2022.

Albert Oy Lee (1952- ), amateur historian and professional photo-journalist, was born in 1952 in Halifax, Nova Scotia to Shew Chuck Lee (1907-1990) and Sui Fa (Kung) Lee. He graduated from New York Institute of Photography and the Germain School of Photography in New York, United States in 1970 and from Ryerson University in Toronto, Ontario in 1973. He worked as a freelance photographer in Toronto, New York, Southeast Asia and the Atlantic provinces of Canada. Albert Lee researched his family’s immigration to Canada from Hoi Ping, Guangdong Province, China and became interested in the history of Chinese immigration to the Maritimes. In 1997 he organized an historical exhibit for the Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History in Halifax, NS then joined Saint Mary’s University Gorsebrook Research Institute (GRI) as a research associate. He has published articles and given public talks in Halifax and in Vancouver, BC, recorded interviews with community members, and worked with the University of British Columbia Library on a digital exhibit for the internet in 2011-2012.

Jean Isabel (Burgess) Kirstine was born in 1917 to Nelsie Winnifred McLeod (1880-1975) and David W. Burgess (1873-1945) in Hanover, Ontario, Canada. She married Gordon McPhail “Mac” Kirstine (1915-2012) in 1940, worked as a school teacher, and raised 5 children in Walkerton, ON. In the 1970s Jean started researching her family history, compiled a genealogy on her mother’s McLeod ancestors from Nova Scotia. She traced her mother’s paternal line from father Jason McLeod (1845-1933) to James Bent McLeod (b.1799) to James McLeod (b.1772) to John McLeod Jr. (1744-1825) of Liverpool, NS who came to Nova Scotia from Scotland in 1762. Jean died in 2007 in Hanover, ON, age 89.

John Frederick Traugott Gschwind (ca.1748-1827), Hessian army and Nova Scotia militia officer, physician, and office holder, was born circa 1748 in Oberdaubnitz, near Meissen, Saxony (German Democratic Republic). In 1776 he arrived in New York City, United States as part of the Hessian army recruited by the British government to suppress the colonial rebellion. In October 1778, his regiment was transferred to Halifax, Nova Scotia and he became a military surgeon with a civilian medical practice on the side. He married Anna Fletcher (1750-1805) on August 3, 1782 and they had one daughter, also named Anna. When his regiment returned to Europe after the conclusion of the Treaty of Paris in 1783, Gschwind stayed in Halifax. As a reward for his military service, he was granted land in Halifax County in 1784 and 1788. In 1793 he was appointed surgeon of the 2nd Halifax Militia Regiment, promoted to surgeon and physician general of the provincial militia in 1796. He was appointed health officer for the Port of Halifax in 1799, responsible for inspection of incoming ships to prevent the spread of contagious diseases, a post he held until 1825. He died 2 September 1827 in Halifax.

Violet Marian (Currie) Fry (1902-1991), housewife, mother of four, and a survivor of the Halifax Explosion of December 6, 1917, was born August 2, 1902 in Halifax, Nova Scotia to James McLean Currie (1869-1941) and Prudence (Sharpe) Currie (1875-1954). At the time of the Explosion, Violet was 15 years old, living with her parents and seven siblings at 90 North Kline Street where her father owned a dairy and delivered milk by horse and wagon. Violet survived the north end disaster as did her family, and their house became a shelter for many who were homeless. In April 1922 Violet married Wilfred A. “Mick” Fry (1901-1972), a machinist, and they had four children: Douglas, Wallace, Marion and Joyce. Violet died on April 23, 1991 in Halifax.