George Stephenson (1781–1848), colliery and railway engineer, was born at Wylam, Northumberland, on 9 June 1781. He is often credited as being the ‘Father of Railways.’ He was the second son of Robert Stephenson, foreman at the Wylam colliery pumping engine. At fourteen he was appointed an assistant fireman to his father and when he was seventeen Robert Hawthorne employed him in the position of ‘plugman’, or engineman. Robert worked on engines at Willington Quay, Killingworth and Montrose, Scotland, before returning to Killingworth, where in 1812 he was appointed engineman and given responsibility for all the machinery at a number of collieries in the Newcastle area. Stephenson built his first locomotive, Blucher, in 1814 for Killingworth colliery, and in 1816, he patented the ‘steam spring’ with William Losh, of Walker Ironworks, Newcastle. Losh had previously supported Stephenson’s claim that he invented the first safety lamp for underground mineworkers in 1815. In early 1822, George was appointed engineer to the Stockton and Darlington Railway, after submitting survey plans and cost estimates for the proposed line and in May 1823, the company was given permission to use steam locomotives on the line. On 23 June 1823, George Stephenson established the engine manufacturing company Robert Stephenson & Co. with Edward Pease, Thomas Richardson and Michael Longridge, which was to be managed by George’s son, Robert. Work commenced in August 1823 and by the time the Stockton and Darlington line opened for traffic on 27 September 1825, four winding engines had been delivered together with a operational steam locomotive: Locomotion No.1. In 1824, George was employed to undertake surveys and prepare plans for the proposed Liverpool and Manchester Railway, but the bill was rejected in parliament. A new bill was passed in 1826, and Stephenson was appointed engineer. Stephenson fought strenuously for using locomotive power on the line, and his locomotive Rocket, built under the direction of his son Robert, won the Rainhill locomotive trials, held in October 1829, to determine the best means of propulsion on the Liverpool and Manchester line. Stephenson was chief engineer to the Grand Junction line connecting Birmingham with Liverpool and Manchester, begun in 1833 and he was also chief engineer to the following railways: Manchester to Leeds, Birmingham to Derby, Normanton to York, and Sheffield to Rotherham, and others, all begun in 1836. The Derby to Leeds Railway (afterwards called the North Midland line) was commenced under his supervision in 1837. In 1838 Stephenson was elected vice-president of the mechanical science section of the British Association at its Newcastle meeting. In 1845, Stephenson’s party won a parliamentary battle as supporters of the locomotive against the upholders of the atmospheric railway system, led by I.K. Brunel. In 1847 Stephenson became president of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, which was founded by him that year in Birmingham. He received in 1835 the honour of knighthood from Leopold I of Belgium and in 1845 he also visited northern Spain in connection with a proposed railway. Stephenson consistently refused all proffered honours in England, however, declining a knighthood on two occasions. He died of pleurisy at Tapton House, Tapton, near Chesterfield, on 12 August 1848. He was buried on 17 August at Holy Trinity Church, Chesterfield.

Edward Pease was a woollen manufacturer and railway promoter, born at Darlington on 31 May 1767, was the eldest son of Joseph Pease, woollen manufacturer, and his wife, Mary Richardson. Edward was educated at Leeds under Joseph Tatham the elder, and at the age of fifteen was placed in the woollen manufacturing business carried on by his father at Darlington. Pease married, on 30 November 1796, a fellow Quaker, Rachel, daughter of John Whitwell, of Kendal. They had five sons and three daughters. Rachel Pease died at Manchester on 18 October 1833. In 1809 Pease became interested in a scheme for improving navigation on the lower reaches of the River Tees, a project which eventually bore fruit as the Stockton and Darlington Railway, linking collieries in south-west Durham with the London coastal trade in competition with established interests on the Tyne and the Wear. Pease's role as the driving force behind the Stockton and Darlington Railway project was facilitated by his status as a Quaker entrepreneur with extensive familial contacts within the Quaker banking community in Norwich and London. Following the opening of the railway in September 1825, intermarriage within the Quaker ‘cousinhood’, reinforced by intra-family share transfers, resulted in the Pease family's emergence as the leading stockholders in the railway. Thus, despite its status as a publicly quoted company the Stockton and Darlington Railway soon aspired to the standing of a family-run firm. Pease's role as provider of capital is well illustrated in his contribution to the founding of Robert Stephenson & Co. of Newcastle upon Tyne in 1823 as a purpose-built locomotive building establishment. Of the modest initial capital of £4000, £1600 was advanced by Pease, but he also loaned Robert Stephenson £500 towards his own subscription. Pease retired from active business life in 1833. He spent the remaining years of his life, as a notably ‘plain’ Quaker, consumed with guilt about his worldly riches and worrying incessantly about his sons' business speculations. He died of heart failure at his residence, Northgate, Darlington, on 31 July 1858. His relations with George Stephenson and his son Robert remained cordial to the end of his life.

John Dixon was born in 1796 and began his career as a bank clerk under Jonathan Backhouse, one of the promoters of the Stockton and Darlington Railway. He worked with George Stephenson surveying the route of the Stockton and Darlington Railway and then transferred to surveying the Canterbury and Whitstable Railway alongside Joseph Locke. He also worked as an Engineer on the Whitehaven and Furness Junction Railway with George Stephenson and as an Engineer on the Wear Valley Railway. He was also Resident Engineer and then Locomotive Superintendent of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. In 1845 he returned to the Stockton and Darlington Railway where he became the Consulting Engineer. In 1850 he was a Director of the Lancaster and Carlisle Railway. He died in 1865.

George Parker Bidder, sometimes referred to as George Parker Bidder III, was born on 21 May 1863, the eldest son of George Parker Bidder (1836-1896), an amateur astronomer and cryptographer. Bidder was educated at King’s preparatory school, Brighton, and at Harrow School. He took the natural sciences tripos at Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1884 and 1886. Bidder inherited the gift of visualizing numbers from his grandfather, George Parker Bidder (1806-1878), who was known as the Calculating Boy. Bidder enjoyed using mathematics in his research and was noted for his accurate observations and experiments. In 1890 Bidder visited the Plymouth marine laboratory for the first time and began working there in 1893. He continued his research on sponges at Plymouth until his father died suddenly following a street accident in Manchester in 1896. Bidder then devoted much time to sort out his father’s many business interests. He also inherited much of his father’s wealth. In 1899 he married Marion Greenwood, a physiologist from Newnham College Cambridge. They began married life in Plymouth and moved to Cambridge in 1902. They had two daughters. In 1905 Bidder was diagnosed with tuberculosis and live the life of a semi-invalid for the next decade, though ultimately made a complete recovery. During this period of convalescence he read widely, and experimented with bottom trailers which could be used to research the movements of submarine currents. As a result of this he worked at HMS Vernon during the First World War. He was made ScD by Cambridge University in 1916 and lectured at Cambridge on sponges in 1894 and 1920-1927. In total Bidder published eighteen papers on the various aspects of sponges. In 1902 Bidder purchased a steam trawler, the Huxley, for North Sea exploration, and let the ship to the Marine Biological Association. When the Association needed to expand in 1920, Bidder gave half of the projected cost of the building works. Bidder was president of the Marine Biological Association from 1939 to 1945 and president of the zoology section of the British Association in Leeds in 1927. He died on 31 December 1953 at the Evelyn Nursing Home, Cambridge.