Botanist and birth control pioneer

The Manchester Guardian Limited was established in 1907 when C.P. Scott bought The Manchester Guardian from the estate of his cousin, Edward Taylor. In 1924, it bought The Manchester Evening News and became The Manchester Guardian and Evening News Limited. The Manchester Guardian newspaper became known as The Guardian in 1959 and the company name subsequently changed to Guardian and Manchester Evening News Limited. It became the Guardian Media Group in 1993. The Group is owned by Scott Trust Limited.

Manchester University was the popular name used for the Victoria University of Manchester, constituted in 1904. Manchester University emerged from the federal Victoria University, which included colleges in Liverpool and Leeds alongside Owens College in Manchester. In 1900 the colleges of the Victoria University separated and in 1904 Owens College was reconstituted as the Victoria University of Manchester, though it was often known simply known as Manchester University, or Owens. In 2004 Manchester University, under its formal name the Victoria University of Manchester, combined with the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) to become known as The University of Manchester.

Humphrey Verdon-Roe was an English businessman and philanthropist who served as a lieutenant during both world wars. He was born in 1878 in Manchester. Along with his brother, Sir Alliott Verdon-Roe, he founded the A. V. Roe & Co Ltd company in 1910 (also known as Avro), which capitalised on A.V. Roe’s aeronautical inventions and experiments and went on to be of paramount importance to the training of air force officers. In 1918, Humphrey Verdon-Roe married Dr. Marie C. Stopes and together, they opened the first birth control clinic in Britain in London in 1921, the Mothers’ Clinic. Humphrey Verdon-Roe died in 1949.