John Bagot Glubb was born in Preston, Lancashire, in 1897. He was educated at Cheltenham College before joining the Royal Engineers in 1915. He served on the Western Front in World War One and was transferred to Iraq in 1920. He became an officer of the Arab Legion in 1930, forming the Desert Patrol in 1931. In 1939 Glubb succeeded Frederick G. Peake as the commander of the Arab Legion remaining in charge of its command until 1956. Glubb died in 1986 at his home in Mayfield, East Sussex.
William Harold Ingrams, OBE CMG, was a British colonial administrator who served in Zanzibar, Mauritius, the Aden Protectorate, the British Zone in post-WW2 Germany, and the Gold Coast. He is best known for his posting in Mukalla, together with his wife Doreen, where he oversaw the Hadhramaut region and brokered a truce between feuding tribes known as "Ingrams' Peace".
Gertrude Caton-Thompson was born in London in 1888 and was educated at Eastbourne and in Paris. Her first experience in archaeology came in 1915 working as a bottle washer in an excavation in France. During World War I she worked for the British Ministry of Shipping as part of which she attended the Paris Peace Conference in 1919. In 1921 Caton-Thompson embarked on studies at University College, London. The following year she began attending courses at Newnham College, Cambridge, before joining further excavations in Egypt in 1924. While much of her archaeological work was in Egypt, she also went on expeditions in other countries, for example, Zimbabwe and South Arabia. Her many contributions to the field of archaeology include a technique for excavating archaeological sites, and information on Paleolithic to Predynastic civilizations in Zimbabwe and Egypt. Caton-Thompson held many official positions in organizations such as the Prehistoric Society and the Royal Anthropological Institute.
Caton-Thompson retired from fieldwork after the Second World War. A long time friend of Dorothy Hoare, a colleague from Cambridge, Caton-Thompson bought and shared a house with Hoare. After Hoare married Jose "Toty" M. de Navarro, another Cambridge lecturer in archaeology, the Navarros continued to share the house with Caton-Thompson. When she and the Navarros retired from academic life in 1956, Caton-Thompson moved with them to Broadway, Worcestershire. She resided with them and their son, Michael, for the rest of her life. She died in 1985, in her 97th year at Broadway.