George Michael Wickens was a distinguished Canadian-British Persianist as well as Arabist, translator and a University lecturer. Wickens was born in London, England and attended Trinity College, Cambridge, where he received his BA in 1939 and MA in 1946, respectively. During the Second World War, he served with the Royal Army Pay Corp from 1939 to 1941 and the Intelligence Corps from 1941 to 1946, rising to the rank of captain. Following his wartime service, most of which was spent in Iran, Wickens resumed academic life, teaching at the University of London for three years before accepting an invitation to return to Cambridge. He taught there until 1957 when he was offered an associate professorship at University of Toronto. He became a full professor in 1960 and founding chair of the Department of Islamic Studies (predecessor to today’s Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations) in 1961. A prolific and distinguished humanities scholar, Wickens was the author of 'Avicenna: Scientist and Philosopher' (1952) and he translated several masterpieces of Persian literature such as Boostan of Sa'di into English. Wickens died in Toronto, Ontario in 2006 from a stroke
Henry Guppy CBE was Librarian of the John Rylands Library in Manchester from 1899 until his death in 1948. He was created Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1937. He was active in the Library Association of Great Britain and among his notable achievements are contributions to the reconstruction of the university library of Louvain between the World Wars and the founding of the Bulletin of the John Rylands Library in 1903. During much of his tenure in Manchester he resided at Buxton, where he died. He was survived by his wife Matilda, with whom he had two daughters, Lilian and Alberta.
Arent Jen Wensinck, from 1912 until 1927, was professor of Hebrew, Aramaic, and Syriac at the University of Leiden, and in 1927 he succeeded Snouck Hurgronje as professor of Arabic and Islam at the same university, at which post he remained until his death.
Anthony Ashley Bevan, FBA was a British orientalist and distinguished Arabist.
Nicholas Pickwoad has a doctorate from Oxford University in English Literature. He trained in bookbinding and book conservation with Roger Powell, and ran his own workshop from 1977 to 1989. He has been Adviser on book conservation to the National Trust of Great Britain since 1978, and was editor of the Paper Conservator.
He taught book conservation at Columbia University Library School in New York from 1989 to 1992 and was Chief Conservator in the Harvard University Library from 1992 to 1995. He is now project leader of the St Catherine’s Monastery Library Project based at the University of the Arts, London and is director of the Ligatus Research Centre, which is dedicated to the history of bookbinding. He gave the 2008 Panizzi Lectures at the British Library, was awarded the 2009 Plowden medal for Conservation and is a Fellow of the IIC and of the Society of Antiquaries. He also teaches courses in the UK, Europe and America on the history of European bookbinding in the era of the hand printing press, and has published widely on the subject. (Information taken from the Website of the Institute of English Studies: https://ies.sas.ac.uk/people/professor-nicholas-pickwoad
Jane McAusland is a conservator and restorer of art on paper. She has had her own private practice, now based in Suffolk, since 1970. With others, she founded the Institute of Paper Conservation in 1976. In 1977 she was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to do further study in the USA. Over the next two years she worked on the collection of HM the Queen in Windsor Castle, particularly on the Holbein drawings. She is a Fellow of the International Institute for Conservation (IIC) and was a member of the Council. She has worked on private collections internationally and for museums both large and small as well as dealers and advises the London auction houses. (Information taken from the Anna Plowden website: https://www.annaplowdentrust.org.uk/about/trustees.)
Caroline Bendix is an accredited freelance library conservator with 40 years’ experience, working for major national conservation bodies, (many on a continuing consultancy basis), cathedrals, churches, synagogues, learned societies and institutions, museums, historic houses, private collections, universities, municipal collections, schools, the Government, Historic Royal Palaces and independent libraries. (information taken from Bendix Library Conservation website: https://bendixlibraryconservation.com/about-caroline/).
Since 1900, four generations of the Behar family have used their passion and skilled craftsmanship to restore antique Persian and Oriental rugs and tapestries to their original state of beauty from their workshop in London. (Information taken from the company's website: https://www.beharprofex.com/.)