Sir John Manduell CBE (1928–2017) was approached to become Cheltenham Festival’s first Programme Director, a post which he held from 1969 to 1994. He then went on to be the first Founding Principal of the RNCM, a formation of the Royal Manchester College of Music and the Northern School of Music. He remained in this post until his retirement in 1996.

Ivy Priaulx Rainier (1903–1986) was a composer, born on 3 February 1903 at Howick in South Africa. Rainier composed approximately thirty works. Though a relatively small œuvre for a career spanning six decades, some of her music was performed by leading musicians. The Priaulx Rainier fund for young composers was established by the Royal Academy of Music and the University of Cape Town after her death, and many of her manuscripts and papers are held at those institutions. Priaulx Rainier died at Besse-en-Chandesse, Auvergne, France, on 10 October 1986.

Biographical details of John Alchin are unknown, though we know from his postcard that he may have lived in Edinburgh at the time writing.