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George Smith was born in Wellington, Somerset, and educated at Oxford, In 1841 he was appointed vicar of Goole, Yorkshire. In 1844 Smith and Thomas McClatchie sailed to China as the first two Christian Missionary Society missionaries in that country, arriving in Shanghai in September of that year. Poor health forced an early return to England, but Smith's Narrative of his period in China was published in 1847. In 1849 was made bishop of the new diocese of Victoria, Hong Kong, and warden of the newly founded St Paul's Missionary College. His diocese included the whole of China and Japan. He learned Mandarin, and became fluent enough to conduct services in it. Smith left Hong Kong for the last time in 1864, retiring from the bishopric early the next year. He died in 1871 at his home in Blackheath, Kent.

Professor E.H.S. Simmonds was born in 1919 at Littlehampton, Sussex. He was educated at Lord Weymouth's school, Warminster. He was enrolled into a course that sponsored by the Institute of Bankers in 1937 because his father want him to be a distributor of agricultural machinery and farming supplies. But Simmonds enlisted in the ranks of the Royal House Artillery and was commissioned in 1940. He was involved in the Malayan Campaign and the surrender of Singapore. He spend four years as a prisoner of war in Singapore and Thai camps. After returning to England, he went to Keble College Oxford in 1946 to study English Language and Literature. However Simmonds continued to be interested in the Thai people and their culture, thus, leading to him teaching linguistics at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, from 1948. He remained at SOAS until his retirement in 1982 from the position of Professor of the Languages and Literatures of South East Asia.

Simmonds played also a major role in the Royal Asiatic Society. He became a Fellow in 1954 and served as Director (1965-68), Vice-President (1968-72 & 1976-80) and President (1973-76). He was married to Patricia Simmonds, actress and artist. He died in 1994.

Henry (Harry) Thomas Silcock was born in Bath in 1882. He was educated at Bath College, Fettes College (Edinburgh) and Oriel College (Oxford). He 1908 he travelled to China to work as a teacher with the Friends Foreign Mission Association. He married Margaret Standing in Chengtu in 1909 with whom he had five children. In 1911 he worked at the West China Union University, becoming Vice-President. He also became Secretary of the the Friends Foreign Mission Association in 1920, where he served until 1932, when he became Secretary of the Universities China Committee in London. It is during this time that he was also involved in the China Society. In 1938 he returned to China to both occupied Shanghai and "Free China", encouraging the formation of a Friends Centre in Shanghai in 1939. Through the 1940s he travelled extensively around the world for the Friends World Committee for Consultation. In 1947 he returned to Chengtu, China. Between 1950-1954 he continued to work for the Friends World Committee for Consultation. He was made an Honorary Member in 1961. Silcock died in 1969, aged 86.