Thomas James Wise was born in Kent, England, in 1859. He became infamous as a book collector and forger.

John Winson was a Justice of the Peace, Police Magistrate, Chairman of the Fraser Valley Regional Library, amateur botanist and journalist for the Vancouver Province, for which he wrote under the pseudonym "Wildwood".

Harold Winch was born in Loughton, Essex, England, and died in White Rock, B.C. Trained originally as an electrician, he served as MLA for Vancouver East from 1933 to 1953 as a member of the CCF. He was provincial party leader from 1938 to 1953. He then served as MP from 1953 to 1972. He was also the Chairman of the Boag Foundation, a founding member of the Immigrant Services Society, a director of the New Vista Society, and a life member of both the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association and the Association for the Protection of Fur-Bearing Animals. He was also involved in forming the B.C. Shuffleboard Association.

Ernest Edward Winch was born in Harlow, England, in 1879. He died at the Vancouver General Hospital in January, 1957. And during his restless life that stretched between those poles of destiny he established himself not only as a politician, and an uncompromising socialist at that, but primarily as a friend of the poor and the week. Settling permanently in the Lower Mainland of B.C. in 1910, Ernest Winch, bricklayer, joined the Bricklayer's and Stonemason's International Union, No. 1, Vancouver. During the next fifteen years he was an active unionist, especially as an organizer in the International Longshoremen's Association, B.C. Loggers Union, and Lumber and Camp Worker's Industrial Union of the One Big Union. He also served a term as secretary of the Vancouver, New Westminster, and District Trades and Labour Council.

In equating the advancement of the working class with the advancement of the socialist movement, he held membership cards in the Social Democratic Party of Canada, B.C. Federated Labor Party, Independent Labor Party, and Socialist Party of Canada prior to his involvement with the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation. In 1933, he was elected to represent Burnaby in the provincial legislature on behalf of the C.C.F. and continued to represent that constituency until his death. During that period of time he was a leading proponent of social legislation in the areas of workers' compensation, prison reform, mental illness, drug addiction, and housing for senior citizens.

Jean Wilson became friends with Jane Rule through correspondence that began in 1975. Wilson then lived in Toronto, working as an editor at the University of Toronto Press (UTP). However, the following spring, she relocated to Vancouver. It started life as a freelance editor, mainly for UTP and UBC Press and a variety of other publishers and individuals. Soon after she moved, she travelled to Galiano Island to meet Jane Rule and Helen Sonthoff. Early in 1977, with encouragement from them, she moved to Galiano herself. There, she rented various houses for the next 3 1/2 years and became very much part of Jane and Helen's life and that of their many friends and acquaintances. Although she loved life on the island and was closely tied to Jane and Helen, working as a freelance editor came to be much work in itself, so she reluctantly moved back to Toronto, where she lived for four more years before finally deciding that the west coast was the place to be and where she returned in 1984. After another four years in Vancouver as a freelance editor, she joined UBC Press in 1988 as Managing Editor and, 20 years later, in 2008, retired as Senior Editor/Associate Director. Wilson currently lives on Vancouver Island, near Sidney -- freelancing once again.

Herbert E. Wilson was born in Ontario and served in the Boer War. He became a Baptist minister but later embarked on a career as a safe cracker. He was imprisoned for twenty years in San Quintan, California. Following his release he worked as a newspaper columnist, artist, Museum of Crime curator, author and literary agent.