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Thomas Bainbridge, active 1778-1818, was a well-known land surveyor and cartographer of estate and enclosure maps. He was based in London in Grays Inn, but worked in all parts of the country.

John Whitgift was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1583 until his death in 1604.

Abraham B. Jayne was a 'jobmaster', supplying carriages, horses and drivers for hire. His business was apparently established in 1864, although it is not clear where (he does not appear in the 1869 street directory covering Upper Norwood). By 1874, however, he was established in the Holly Bush Stables in Westow Street (at the back of the Holly Bush Hotel in Westow Hill). In about 1879, Jayne moved to the yards behind the White Hart and The Alma, important inns on opposite sides of Church Road. The business may afterwards have been reduced, as he appears in directories of 1882-1886 simply as a Fly Proprietor. He seems to have ceased trading in about 1886, and does not appear in directories after that date.

Thomas Weller (c1810-1867) practised as a watch and clock maker, silversmith and jeweller, at 2 High Street, Croydon. He also carried out small-scale printing (mainly of stationery). He took over the business from his father, also Thomas Weller, who was active from at least 1810, and died c1833. They were presumably related to Richard Weller (c1762-1833), of Butchers Row, another watch and clock maker.

Frederick Foss was a solicitor, who was active in the movement for the incorporation of Croydon as a Borough. When the campaign finally succeeded in 1883, he became the Charter Town Clerk: that is, he briefly acted as Town Clerk until the formal election to the post of CM Elborough. In 1886, he was elected to the Council, and he served as Mayor 1892-1893. In July 1893 he was elected Alderman; and later that year he was made a permanent Justice of the Peace. In 1895 Elborough fell ill and eventually died, and Foss again acted as Town Clerk for five months. The present album was given to him in recognition of this work at a Council meeting on 21 Sept 1896 (Croydon Advertiser, 26 Sept 1896). In 1902 he again acted as Town Clerk; and he was given the Freedom of the Borough in 1907.

The survey of rookeries and winter rook roosts in the area of the CNHSS Regional Survey was undertaken in 1945 by Dr [later Professor] RG Newton, as a contribution to the Rook Investigation, a project carried out under the direction of James Fisher (d 1970) for the Agricultural Research Council. The results were published as RG Newton, 'Rook Survey Work' by the Ornithological Section, Proceedings of the CNHSS, vol 11 (1948), pp309-314. An introductory paper by RG Newton and James Fisher, 'The Reasons for the Survey of Winter Roosts used by Rooks', explaining some of the methodology used, is published in the same place, pp303-308.

Alexander Sandison was born in April 1854 in Cullivoe, Yell, Shetland, the eldest of a family of ten. As the third in a series of eldest sons named Alexander, he was known within the family as Looie.

He was educated at the Queen Street Institution, Edinburgh, and later at Cheshunt College, Herts; and was ordained as a Congregational minister in 1880. He immediately took up the prestigious position of Pastor of the Kings Weigh House Church, in Fish Street Hill, City of London. The Church building was compulsorily purchased for railway development in 1883: Rev Alexander was then responsible for finding a new site at Duke Street, Grosvenor Square, and for overseeing the building of a new Weigh House, which finally opened in 1891. In 1901, feeling a sense of personal failure, he resigned his pastorate of the Weigh House. He then returned for a time to Shetland. In 1904, he moved to Croydon, to become Minister of South Croydon Congregational Church, Aberdeen Road. He lived at 29 St Peters Road, South Croydon.

He retired from his ministry in June 1919, and the family moved in October to 'Lynnbank', 21 South Park Hill Road. He died on 15 November 1921.

Certificates for shorthand qualifications issued to William Harry Hwakins ( born 1883)

Alfred Wallace lived at Waldron Edge, Duppas Hill Lane, 1878 - 1881 and was connected with the CNHSS during this time.

Leslie Robinson (d.o.b. 7 May 1922) attended Selburst Grammar School for boys from Sep 1933 until Jul 1938; his admisson, as pupil no. 2854 is recorded in admission register SCH119/2/9. He passed his general school certificate and on leaving school became a Clerk with the Sea Insurance Company Ltd.

Dr Francis J.G. Keen was born in 1955 in Camberwell, London, and has lived in Croydon since the age of three.

He attended St. Marks Church of England Primary School (South Norwood), St. Anthonys Roman Catholic Junior School (Anerley), Bishop Thomas Grant Roman Catholic Secondary School (Streatham) where he was Sacristan, Librarian and Head Boy. He has studied at the Universities of Southampton (Theology), Toulouse (France) (English Literature) and Canterbury (English for Secondary School Teaching). His main area of research has been in the religious poetry of suffering in English poets.

His professional life has included working as an Auxiliary Male Nurse at Mayday Hospital, Croydon. He has worked for British Telecoms International as a Satellite Non-Switched Digital Transit Level 1 Manager as well as working as a Lecturer at the Social Sciences, University of Toulouse. He lectured in English for Special Purposes in Law, Economics, Political Sciences, Social and Economic Administration, University of the Third Age and Womens University Studies. He was a translator and interpreter in French and English. He was awarded Toulouse Universitys medal for service in 1989. He obtained three straight firsts at Toulouse University (Literature Faculty) and qualified as a teacher in the UK in 1992. He taught English, Drama and French at Selsdon High School from 1990 to 1999 where he was also a Head of Year. For the first two years at Selsdon, he was training as a Licenced Teacher on a point 5 release and week-end programme in association with the Education Faculty of Christ Church College, Canterbury University. He was the Local Chairman of the Professional Association of Teachers (Croydon Branch) and has stayed a member of this organisation. He was a Governor at Redgates Special School from 1983 to 1987. He presently works as an a part-time administrator for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Southwark and is the main carer for his disabled son, Sebastian.

He married Anne-Marie, a French citizen, in 1978. His hobbies include cooking, plane spotting and, inevitably, reading - especially biographies. He is a sci-fi fan and enjoys collecting action and sci-fi videos. In 1983 he became the Chair of the Friends and Trustees of Orchard Hill College of Further Education for People with Profound, Severe, Multiple and Complex Learning Difficulties which his son currently attends.

Dr Sidney Joseph Madge D.Sc.,F.S.A., a local historian and Purley resident began work on the history of the district in 1890. He was Assistant Keeper of the books at the British Museum for many years and was also a co-opted member of Coulsdon and Purley UDC Library Committee 1944 - 48. In October 1952 he was presented with an illuminated address at the meeting of Coulsdon and Purley Council on Monday, as a token of the councils thanks for the long and fine work done by him in connection with the historical records of the district which he has given to the library. Dr Madge , in return, presented the chairman, Coun. A G V Page with an early history of the Manor of Coulsdon from Cuthred to the Crusades [SJM/2, Coulsdon and Purley Advertiser 31 October 1952 p.1 col.2]

At the time of his death on 3rd February 1961 he lived at 23 Russell Hill Road, Purley. There is a short obituary to be found in the Coulsdon and Purley Council minutes for 1960 - 61 vol. XLV1 p.959 which is held in the Local Studies Library.

At the time he wrote his history of Sanderstead, William C. Dendy was residing at Briarwood, Edgar Road, Sanderstead.

John Corbet Anderson was a leading historian of Croydon in the nineteenth century. He was educated in Rothesay on the Isle of Bute. Showing a keen interest in art from a young age, Anderson submitted a cartoon sketch to an exhibition in Westminster Hall in 1843 called ‘The Plague of London 1655’. He moved to Liverpool in 1846 and worked as a portrait painter. Anderson moved to Croydon in 1852, living with his sisters on Duppas Hill. He married Frances Goddard in 1855 and following her death in 1861, married Sarah Goddard in 1864 with whom he had seven sons. Anderson contributed cricketing lithographs in ‘Sketches at Lord's’; between 1850 and 1860 he drew lithographs of 39 different players. In 1859 he published 'To India and Back by the Cape by a Traveller', despite having never visited India. Five years later he published 'Shropshire: its early history and antiquities'. He also contributed to ‘English Landscapes and Views’ (1883) by Roberts and Leete, wrote the footnotes for the updated version of Joseph Nash’s 'The Mansions of England in the Olden time', illustrated ‘Biblical Monuments’ by William Harris Rule, wrote ‘Old Testament and Monumental Coincidences’ (1895), and edited ‘The Family of Leete, with special reference to the genealogy of Joseph Leete’ (1881).

Anderson’s first book on Croydon – ‘Monuments and Antiquities of Croydon Church in the County of Surrey’ – was published in 1855. The book traced the history of the parish church from the 14th century to the restoration undertaken in the 1850s. In 1871 he wrote ‘Monuments and Antiquities of the old parish church of St John Baptist of Croydon, in the County of Surrey, which was destroyed by fire on the night of January the fifth’, and ‘The parish church as it was rebuilt during the years mdcclxii-ix after the design of G. Gilbert Scott, R. A.’ He also wrote ‘Chronicle of the Parish of Croydon’, the first volume of which was ‘Croydon: Pre-Historic & Roman’ (1874). The second volume was ‘Saxon Croydon’ (1877) which covers finds such as human remains in Park Street, under Whitgift’s almshouses and at Farthing Downs. The third volume was ‘Croydon Old Church: Parish Register and the Whitgift Charity’, followed by the final volume on ‘The Archiepiscopal Palace at Croydon’ (1879). Anderson’s next book on Croydon was published in 1882, ‘A Short Chronicle concerning the Parish of Croydon’, followed by ‘A Descriptive and Historical Guide to Croydon Surrey’ in 1887. His final book, ‘The Great North Wood: with a Geological, topographical and Historical description of Upper Norwood, West & South Norwood, in the County of Surrey’, was published in 1898.

Anderson died on 3rd January 1907 and was buried five days later in Queen’s Road Cemetery in Croydon, where his grave still stands.