Anne Isabella Milbanke Byron, 11th Baroness Wentworth and Baroness Byron, known for her work as a philanthropist and as the wife of poet Lord Byron (1788-1824), was born on May 17, 1792 in Durham. She was the daughter of Sir Ralph Milbanke (afterward Noel), sixth baronet, and Judith Noel.

Lady Byron met George Gordon Noel Byron, sixth Baron Byron in London in 1812, and the couple married in 1815 after a three-year courtship following Lady Byron's initial rejection of Lord Byron's proposal. Lady Byron became pregnant shortly after their marriage, and toward the end of her pregnancy, she became worried about Lord Byron's mental state, feeling he was a danger both to her and to himself. She returned with her newborn baby, Ada, to her mother's home in Leicestershire, leaving Lord Byron in London. The couple separated in 1816 and never saw each other again.

Following Ada's premature death at the age of 36 in 1852, Lady Byron turned her attention to philanthropy, particularly relating to education and women's rights. She established the Ealing Grove School, a trade school, and aided Mary Carpenter in establishing a reformatory for girls. Lady Byron died on May 16, 1860 in London and is buried in Kensal Green Cemetery.

[Information retrieved from Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.]

George MacDonald (1824-1905) was a Scottish poet, novelist, and minister. He was known as one of the first fantasy fiction authors of works for both children and adults, publishing Phantastes: A Faerie Romance for Men and Women (1858), The Princess and the Goblin (1872), and At the Back of the North Wind (1871), amongst other works. MacDonald died in Surrey in 1905.

[Information retrieved from Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.]