William Stanley Croft was born 7 January 1867 in Chester Basin, Nova Scotia, to Joseph and Matilda Croft. He was first married in 1898 to Elizabeth Ellen Ernst, with whom he had at least one child, Clark Raymond Croft (b. 1900). William Croft married Gladys Adelia Hiltz in 1908, with whom he had at least one child, Arthur Stanley Croft (b. 1909). His first marriage certificate lists his occupation as a farmer, while his second identifies him as a miner. He died 19 January 1944.
J.D. Murray Crockett was born 4 August 1870. He worked at Truro, Colchester County, Nova Scotia as a railway brakeman. Crockett was married to Jessie Hall, born 18 April 1875. They had one child H. Marion. Crockett died in 1926.
Private John Bernard Croak was born in Newfoundland to James and Cecilia Croak in 1892. The family later moved to Glace Bay, where Croak attended school and later worked in the mines. In 1914, he went to Western Canada and on his way home volunteered for overseas service. He was killed in 1918 in action during the attack on Amiens Defence System that merited him the Victoria Cross.
Lela Gurnee Crist was born in 1894, the daughter of Edward Crist and Adelaide (Cleveland) of Sheet Harbour, N.S. She was trained in bookkeeping through the Nova Scotia Department of Technical Education, 1913-1916. In 1923 she graduated with a diploma from the Victoria School of Art and Design in Halifax. She studied under Elizabeth S. Nutt, Henry Rosenberg, and Stanley Royle, and was a member of the Nova Scotia Society of Artists. She taught painting in watercolours and oils for several years and then specialized in painting miniatures. She died in 1982.
G.W.I. (Wilfrid) Creighton was the last of six children born to Graham and Catherine (Murray) Creighton of Halifax. Born 5 May 1904, he was educated at the Halifax Academy and Dalhousie University (BA, 1927), and went on to study forestry at the University of New Brunswick, the Prussian State Forestry College, the University of Munich, and the Saxon Forestry School in Tharandt.
After graduating from UNB in 1929 Creighton worked in the forestry industry in Quebec and Ontario. From 1931-1934 he studied in Europe, becoming Provincial Forester on his return to Nova Scotia. He was appointed Deputy Minister of the Department of Lands and Forests in 1949 and remained in the position until his retirement in 1969.
Creighton was active in a number of organizations, including the Canadian Institute of Forestry, the Canadian Forestry Association, and the Forest Products Association of Nova Scotia. He was awarded honorary degrees by UNB in 1953 and Dalhousie in 2004. The Forest Environment Centre at Shubenacadie Wildlife Park was named in his honour.
Creighton married Dorothy Helen Remillard in 1940, with whom he had three children. He died 17 August 2008 in Halifax, aged 104.
Thomas Colton Creighton was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on 18 July 1825, the son of George Brinley Creighton and Isabel Ann (Grassie). He married Ann Albro, fifth daughter of Samuel Albro, on 7 June 1849 in Halifax, and they had four children. Creighton, a master mariner, captained a number of vessels for his uncles, James G.A. Creighton and Thomas Ritchie Grassie, partners in the firm Creighton and Grassie. In 1843 he undertook a voyage on board the barque Rose to the Pacific Ocean, for the purpose of hunting sperm whales. The Rose, 421 ton barque, was one of three vessels previously owned by the Halifax Whaling Company, and being operated independently by Samuel Cunard. During the voyage, which lasted until 1846, Creighton kept a daily journal in which he recorded his experiences. He died at sea in February 1862.
Norman Charles Creighton (1909–1995) was born to Charles Jolly and Harriett (nee Hendry) Creighton in Bedford, Nova Scotia. He graduated from the Maritime Business College in Halifax in 1929, where he took classes in correspondence, typing, and shorthand. He worked as private secretary until he was struck down by pulmonary tuberculosis in his early twenties. After his recovery three years later, Creighton settled in Hantsport, where he established a plant nursery and began beekeeping. He spent the majority of his adult life in Hantsport with his older sister Laleah; neither sibling married.
Creighton's writing career did not begin until 1941, when he was in his early 30s. That year he created "The Gillans," a dramatic serial about a farming family for CBC radio's Maritime version of the Farm Broadcast. The serial was highly successful, but very demanding of Creighton, who was required to write five scripts a week. He resigned in 1949 but continued to do freelance work for CBC Radio as a writer for the short-lived weekly serial "Three of a Kind," and as a writer and broadcaster of radio talks. These short talks were among Creighton's most popular works, and he created them on a regular basis for over three decades.
In the early 1950s, Creighton began writing for print. His short stories were routinely rejected from magazines, but his non-fiction articles were more successful, appearing in the Atlantic Advocate and Maclean's. Although he had several published articles, Creighton's career as a magazine writer never became anything more than flirtatious; his attentions were directed at radio and the new medium of television. In 1955, Creighton moved to New York City to take a course on television writing at Columbia University. He spent five years in New York City, but his career as a writer for the new medium never took off, and he was forced into menial office work to pay the bills.
After leaving New York City, Creighton returned to Hantsport and resumed his career as a freelance writer and broadcaster. During the 1960s he worked on special projects for CBC Radio and CBC International, which included interview shows on the town of Lunenburg and the V. E. Day riots in Halifax, and a short series of comedy shows called "The Rum Runners." In addition to his regular radio talks, Creighton also wrote radio plays, acted in several CBC Radio dramas, and penned the occasional magazine article. Creighton took on fewer projects as the 1970s progressed, but he researched and recorded radio talks until his retirement in the 1980s. Creighton was a member of the Radio Writers' Guild, the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA), and a founding member of the Writers' Federation of Nova Scotia (WFNS).
Creighton was a prolific writer, but little of it has been published. In 2001, Creighton's neighbour Hilary Sircom edited Talk about the Maritimes, a compilation of Creighton's essays accompanied by paintings and poems created by his older brother Alan Creighton.