Charles Hose was born in Willan, Hertfordshire on October 12th 1863. He was the son of Thomas Charles Hose and Fanny (née Goodfellow). He was educated at Felsted and Jesus College, Cambridge. He married Emily Ravn in 1905 and had one son and one daughter. Hose entered the service of the Raja of Sarawak as a Sarawak cadet in March 1884. In 1888 he was Officer-in-Charge of the Baram District. In January 1891 he was Resident, 2nd class. By May 1904 he was Resident, 3rd Division, a member of Supreme Council and Judge of the Supreme Court of Sarawak. He retired in 1907 but he revisited Sarawak in 1909 and 1920. From 1916 to 1919 he was Superintendent of H.M. Explosives Factory, Kings Lynn. In 1919 he was a member of the Sarawak State Advisory Council at Westminster. In 1924 at the British Empire Exhibition in Wembley he was the Director of Agricultural and Industrial Exhibits, Sarawak Pavilion. Hose was a keen amateur photographer and also made a large collection of fauna and flora from Sarawak. He died on November 14th 1929 and, subsequently, a large part of his collection of Sarawak material was presented to the British Museum.

The Sarawak Civil Service List gives further details of his activities in Sarawak: 'While in Sarawak [Hose] distinguished himself as a geographer, anthropologist and collector of natural history specimens. His numerous journeys in the Baram District, which he was the first Officer to explore thoroughly, brought him into contact with many interior tribes, who, through his influence, came under Sarawak control and made peace with Sarawak tribes. Conducted a successful expedition in the Ulu Rejang with a force of two hundred Kayans against Dyaks on Bukit Batu April to June 1904. While Resident of the Third Division was instrumental in effecting the surrender of Bantin and disaffected tribes of the Empran, Engkari and Kanowit districts. After leaving Sarawak he was responsible for bringing to the notice of the Anglo-Saxon Petroleum Company the possibilities of the Miri Oilfield and for conducting negotiations between H.H. the Rajah and that Company, resulting in the exploitation of that field, which, in point of production of oil, is now the second largest within the countries under the control of protection of Great Britain'.

Robert Walter Campbell Shelford was born in Singapore on the 3rd August 1872. He was educated at King's College, London and Emmanuel College, Cambridge. From 1895 to 1897 he was a demonstrator in biology at the Yorkshire College, Leeds. From 1897 to 1904 he was the curator of the Sarawak Museum, Kuching. Shelford was in the Hope Department, Oxford University Museum 1905-12. Shelford married the daughter of Reverend Alfred Richardson in June 1908 and died at Margate on the 22nd June 1912.