Barbara Burford was born in Jamaica in 1944. She moved to London in 1955 with her family, where she attended school and went onto study Medicine at London University. Barbara enjoyed a varied career with the NHS, the civil service and later as a consultant to various public-sector organisations. Barbara pioneered learning and social change throughout her career, and promoted equality in all that she did.

Barbara’s career in the NHS began in 1964. Initially, she specialised in postgraduate teaching hospitals, before leading a team at the Institute of Child Health and Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children. She ran the pulmonary vascular laboratory there for several years during the 1980s and her team was central to several breakthroughs in heart and lung transplant surgery for infants and children. Later in the 1990s, Barbara moved to Leeds to set up IT systems for the NHS executive, a key achievement of which being Positively Diverse – a programme of guidelines designed to help achieve equality in the NHS. From 1999 Barbara was the director of Equality and Diversity at the Department of Health, beginning many initiatives that are now well established. In 2005, shortly before her retirement, the University of Bradford appointed her Deputy Director of its Centre for Inclusion and Diversity. Barbara then set up a consultancy to carry on her mentoring and coaching work.

During her lifetime Barbara was also a writer, with a particular interest in science fiction and very engaged in feminist politics. She wrote plays, poetry, short stories and a novella. Her play Patterns was produced at the Drill Hall theatre in 1984; the same year that her poetry featured in A Dangerous Knowing – Four Black Women Poets. In 1986 she published The Threshing Floor, a novella and collection of short stories.

Cathy McCormack (July 5th 1952 – present), is a Scottish grassroots activist based in EasterHouse, Glasgow, prominent for her involvement in local and international anti-poverty campaigns. Becoming part of the EastHall Residents Association (ERA) in 1982, McCormack began her activism through a Glasgow-wide Anti-Damp campaign, helping to tackle a chronic damp housing problem experienced in EasterHouse and other post-war housing schemes. McCormack’s continued campaigning in the 1990s led to her involvement in setting up the Scottish Public Health Alliance in 1992, her attendance as a Scottish representative at the United Nations Commission for Sustainable Development in 1994, and two study trips to Nicaragua and South Africa in 1992 and 1998. Today, McCormack still resides in Easterhouse Glasgow and is the author of a 2009 autobiography, ‘The Wee Yellow Butterfly’.

Chella Quint is a comedian, improvisor, designer, artist, writer, presenter and education researcher from Brooklyn, New York who now lives in Sheffield, England. She coined the phrase ‘period positive’ in 2006 and founded the #periodpositive campaign. She is a former head of PSHE (sex and relationships and life skills education), was a teacher researcher with the Gender Respect Project and advisor on the Gender Equality Charter for DECSY (Development Education Centre South Yorkshire) and now performs and consults for #periodpositive after completing a Master’s Degree in Education focusing on changing attitudes to menstruation in secondary schools.

John Lancelot Agard Bramhall Davenport was born in London, England in 1908. He became known as a critic and book reviewer who wrote for The Observer and The Spectator.
Son of the writer Robert Davenport and the actress Muriel George, he was primarily raised by his grandmother and educated at ST Paul’s and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. Following his studies Davenport worked for MGM as a screenwriter with F. Scott Fitzgerald. In 1934 Davenport married Clemency Hale, a painter and set designer and had one child. In the 1940s he taught at Stowe School and worked for the BBC at Bush House as head of the Belgian Section. Following his divorce to Hale, Davenport married Marjorie Morrison and had another child. In the 1960s, he retired to the country and died shortly afterwards.

Dorothy Dick was born in 1905 in either Bearsden or Milngavie to a fairly wealthy family. Her childhood was affected by World War I, and thus, she does not have many records from that time. At the age of 13, Dorothy began to attend the St Leonard's School for Girls in St Andrews. Despite her status, she never married and instead began working as a nurse in the 1930s. In 1938/39, Dorothy passed her driving test and was added to the roll of ambulance drivers for the St Andrew's Ambulance Association, Glasgow. Dorothy was a very companionable person and took many holidays with her friends and family. She kept many well-organized photo albums with pictures of her vacations, family, friends, and many dogs.

Rebecca Dobash is an American scholar whose main area of research is violence and the policies and interventions around it. She completed her PhD at the University of Washington, and has held positions at the University of Stirling, University of Cardiff, and the University of Manchester, where she is a Professor of Social Research in the School of Law.

Along with her husband, Russell Dobash, she has published eight books and over 100 journal articles and chapters on intimate partner violence. 'Violence Against Wives' (1979) was particularly influential to the Women's Aid movement in Scotland.

Russell Dobash is an American scholar whose research areas include domestic violence, gender, crime, and homicide. He received his BA and MA from Arizona State University and his PhD from the University of Washington. Dobash has held positions at the University of Stirling, Cardiff University, and since 1996, has been Professor of Criminology & Social Policy at the University of Manchester.

Much of his research has been undertaken with his wife, Rebecca Dobash, including the 1979 'Violence Against Wives' which was instrumental in the Women's Aid movement in Scotland.

Elizabeth Anderson was born 12th October 1901 in Clydebank and worked as a crane operator throughout much of her life. From 1922 to 1932, she worked at Babcock and Wilcox, and later served as a crane driver during World War 2 at John Brown’s shipyard. The shipyard, at the time, was internationally renowned, and produced many famous ships. Whilst driving the biggest gantry crane on site one shift, she misjudged a load and blew a fuse, resulting in a whole area of the yard losing electricity, though she continued to work there. She remained single throughout her life due to the death of her fiancé during the war. She was a devoted Methodist, and a member of the temperance and social welfare department of the church.