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Thomas John Newbold was born in Macclesfield in 1807. He joined the Madras Light Infantry in 1828. Arriving in India in that year, he undertook further study and passed an examination in Hindustani in 1830, and in Persian in 1831. From 1830 to 1835 Newbold was Quartermaster and interpreter to his regiment. He moved to Malacca in 1832, where he actively pursued an interest in the region collecting manuscripts and artefacts. Arriving at the Presidency with a detachment of his corps in August 1835, he was approved as aide-de-camp to Brigadier-General E.W. Wilson and commanded the ceded districts, an appointment he held until 1840. He was appointed Deputy Assistant Quartermaster-General for the Division in 1838, and Deputy Assistant Adjutant-General and Postmaster to the Field Force in the ceded districts in 1839.

Newbold left India on leave of absence early in 1840, and visited Gebel Nákas in the peninsula of Mount Sinai in June of that year. He was elected a member of the Royal Asiatic Society in 1841 and a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1842. Newbold was promoted to the rank of Captain on 12 April 1842, and recalled to India in the following May. Arriving at Madras, he was appointed Assistant to the Commission at Kurnool. He was Assistant to the Agent to the Governor of Fort St. George at Kurnool and Bunganahilly from 1843 to 1848, when he was appointed Assistant to the Resident at Hyderabad. He was permitted to go to Egypt for two years in June 1845. He died at Mahabuleshwar on 29 May 1850.

Alexander Gerard was born in Aberdeen in 1792, son of Gilbert Gerard and grandson of Alexander Gerard, the Scottish minister and philosopher. He and his two brothers all served in India. Gerard graduated from Kings College, Aberdeen, in 1808 when he was appointed to a cadetship in the 13th Bengal Infantry. He was employed in the survey of the route from Dehli to Lahore in 1812. In 1814 he was promoted to lieutenant, and appointed to survey the Saharanpur district, which he completed in 1819. He was surveyor of the Narmada valley in 1825, and surveyor in Malwa and Rajputana in 1826 and 1827. During the surveys in the Himalayas he ascended heights previously believed to be inaccessible, and penetrated into Tibet as far as the frontier pickets of Chinese would allow. Some of the earliest discoveries of the geological structure and remains of the Himalayan ranges come from his work. Gerard was a Persian scholar and versed in other oriental languages. He was also an accurate topographer and observant traveller. Bad health, the result of hardships endured in the course of his survey duties and travels, led to his retirement from the service on 22 February 1836. He died in Aberdeen on 15 December 1839, aged 48.