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Sir William Jones, was born on 28th September 1746, in London, the third child of William Jones, F.R.S., an able mathematician. His father died in 1749 and he was raised by his mother Maria Jones (née Nix). Jones attended Harrow School from 1753 where he taught himself Hebrew and was seen to be an able poet, keen chess-player and to have a prodigious memory. After school he went to University College, Oxford, where alongside the usual studies he learnt Arabic and Persian.

In 1766 Jones became tutor to Lord Althorp (later Earl Spencer) and with the Spencer family travelled to Europe, learning German. In 1770 he translated the Persian history of Nadir Shah into French at the request of King Christian VII of Denmark. Other publications followed including the Grammar of the Persian Language in 1771, a volume of poetry in 1772 and the Commentaries on Asiatic Poetry in 1774. Jones was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1772.

Jones was admitted to the Temple in 1770 to read law, being appointed in 1776 as one of sixty Commissioners of Bankruptcy. In 1783, he was appointed to the India Bench in Calcutta, the hope of which had precipitated his proposal in October 1782, to Anna Maria Shipley, whom he had known for several years. The appointment also brought him a knighthood. William and Anna were married by special licence on April 6th 1783 and four days later sailed from Portsmouth on the frigate Crocodile.

Besides serving on the bench William Jones set up the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1784, becoming its President until his death. He also studied Sanskrit and during an illness both he, and Lady Anna, became interested in Indian botany. Despite frequent bouts of illness, Jones continued to write publications and aimed to compile a complete digest of Hindu and Mohammedan laws. In the end it was Henry Colebrooke who finished this task. Jones also undertook the editorship of the Researches of the Asiatic Society, the first volume being published in 1789.

Lady Jones also suffered from ill-health, and in 1793, William persuaded her to sail for England promising to follow her as soon as he was able. However in 1794 he became ill with 'inflammation of the liver' and died on 27th April, 1794.

Ralph Lilley Turner was born in London in 1888, and educated in London and at Christ's College, Cambridge. In 1913, he joined the Indian Educational Service as a lecturer at Queen's College, Benares. From 1915 to 1919, he served with the 2nd battalion, 3rd Queen Alexandra's Own Gurkha Rifles in the British Indian Army during World War I, winning the Military Cross in Palestine. From 1920 to 1922, he was Professor of Indian Linguistics at Benares Hindu University.

In 1922, Turner returned to England as Professor of Sanskrit at the School of Oriental Studies at the University of London. Between 1924 and 1932, he also published several papers on Romani Studies in the Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, including "On the position of Romani in Indo-Aryan" (1927). He was Director of the school from 1937 to 1957, although he continued to occupy his Chair as well until 1954. He was knighted in 1950. His magnum opus, the Comparative Dictionary of the Indo-Aryan languages was published in 1966.

Sir Mountstuart Elphinstone Grant Duff GCSI CIE PC FRS (21 February 1829 – 12 January 1906), known as M. E. Grant Duff before 1887 and as Sir Mountstuart Grant Duff thereafter, was a Scottish politician, administrator and author. He served as the Under-Secretary of State for India from 1868 to 1874, Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies from 1880 to 1881 and the Governor of Madras from 1881 to 1886.

Monier Monier-Williams was the second Boden Professor of Sanskrit at Oxford University, England. He studied, documented and taught Asian languages, especially Sanskrit, Persian and Hindustani. He was born in Mumbai, but educated in England. He taught at the East India Company College from 1844 until 1858. In 1860 he stood against Max Müller, and was appointed, for the position of Boden Chair of Sanskrit at Oxford University after the death of Horace Hayman Wilson. He was knighted in 1876.

Joseph Dalton Hooker, was born in Halesworth, Sussex, the second son of the botanist William Jackson Hooker. From the age of seven Hooker attended his father's lectures at Glasgow University. He was educated at Glasgow High school before studying medicine at Glasgow University. He graduated in 1839, entered the Naval Medical Service and joined polar explorer Captain James Clark Ross's Antarctic expedition to the South Magnetic Pole (1839-1843) after receiving a commission as Assistant-Surgeon on HMS Erebus. in 1845 he took up the position of botanist to the Geological Survey of Great Britain. He travelled to India and the Himalaya from 1847-1851. It is from this period that much of the correspondence in the archive belongs. He stayed with Hodgson during this period and would send him letters whilst he was travelling with Archibald Campbell (see BHH/3/1).

Hooker continued to travel including Palestine in 1860, Morocco in 1871 and the west of the United States in 1877.

In 1855 Hooker was appointed Assistant Director of the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew and he succeeded his father as Director in 1865. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society and served as its President from 1873-1877.

Hooker married Frances Harriet Henslow in 1851 and they had four sons and three daughters, one of whom was named Brian Harvey Hodgson Hooker. Frances died in 1874 and Hooker remarried in 1876, Lady Hyacinth Jardine, and they had two sons. Hooker died at home in Berkshire on 10 December 1911 and was buried alongside his father at St. Anne's Church, Kew.

Sir Joseph Banks was born on 15th February 1743 in London into a wealthy land-owning family. He was educated at Harrow School and Eton College, where he became interested in botany. Between 1760 and 1763, Banks studied at Christ Church, Oxford, inheriting a considerable fortune after the death of his father in 1761. This wealth funded his travel to collect botanical specimens.

In 1772, Banks became Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society from 1766 and its president from 1778 until his death in 1820. He was created a baronet in 1781 and appointed to the Order of the Bath in 1795. He died on 19th June 1820 in London.

John Fisher Turner was born in 1881, the son of a barrister. He was educated at Rugby and the Royal Marine Academy at Woolwich before being commissioned into the Royal Engineers in 1900. He served in the North-west Frontier in 1908 and became the Chief Engineer of the Royal Air Force, India, from 1928-1931. He is remembered for his ingenuity in designing decoy sites in Britain during World War II. He died on 21 May 1958. He never married.

Sir John Bowring was born in Exeter. His father was a wool merchant to China. As a young man he travelled extensively, becoming a partner in his father's company in 1818, selling herrings to Spain and France. He became editor of the Westminster Review in 1825 advocating free trade, parliamentary reform and popular schooling. In 1832 he was appointed to carry our investigations on accounting systems in the Netherlands and France to make recommendations to the British Government. In 1835 he became a MP and in 1845 became Chairman of the London and Blackwall Railway.

In 1849 Bowring was appointed British Consul at Canton (Guangzhou) and superintendent of trade in China. From 1852 to 1853, he acted as Britain's Plenipotentiary and Superintendent of Trade and Governor of Hong Kong in the absence on leave of Sir George Bonham. Bowring was instrumental in the formation in 1855 of the Board of Inspectors established under the Qing Customs House.

The newly knighted Bowring received his appointment as Governor of Hong Kong and her Majesty's Plenipotentiary and Chief Superintendent of British Trade in China on 10 January 1854. He arrived in Hong Kong and was sworn in on 13 April 1854, in the midst of the Taiping Rebellion, remaining in Hong Kong until 1858.