Sir Ebenezer Howard (29 January 1850– May 1, 1928) is known for his publication Garden Cities of To-morrow (1898), the description of a utopian city in which people live harmoniously together with nature. The publication resulted in the founding of the garden city movement, that realized several Garden Cities in Great Britain at the beginning of the 20th century. Billerica Garden Suburb,Inc.(1914), was the first housing in the United States on the Howard plan.

Ebenezer Howard was born in Fore Street, City of London, the son of a shopkeeper. He was sent to schools in Suffolk and Hertfordshire, and subsequently had several clerical jobs, including one with Dr Parker of the City Temple. In 1871, at the age of 21, influenced partly by a farming uncle, Howard emigrated with two friends to America. He went to Nebraska, but soon discovered that he did not wish to be a farmer. He then relocated to Chicago and worked as a reporter for the courts and newspapers. In the U.S. he became acquainted with, and admired, poets Walt Whitman and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Howard began to ponder ways to improve the quality of life.

Mark Astronaut (Mark Wilkins) is a Welwyn Garden City (UK) based musician.

Astronaut has been involved with three main projects consisting of The Astronauts, Restricted Hours and The Otters. His career spans over 30 years. He was involved in the free music scene of the late 70's and early 80's, playing with the likes of Zounds, The Mob, and touring on Here and Now's Free Tours. The Astronauts have released material on a variety of labels including All The Madmen, Acid Stings, Irregular and Bugle.

Although never seeking publicity and recognition, Mark's music trickles out to those in the know, and frequently receives critical acclaim. Mark is a profound lyricist, and frequently draws inspiration from the absurdities of life in Britain, giving his music a distinctly English feel. A collection of his lyrics can be found on the official Astronauts website under songbook. Rock n Reel magazine (March/April 2009) described Mark as 'The Post-Punk Dylan of Welwyn Garden City'.

The Otters are Mark's latest project, and have been performing for approximately 7 years.

Ebenezer Scrooge is the principal character in Charles Dickens's 1843 novel, A Christmas Carol. At the beginning of the novel, Scrooge is a cold-hearted, tight-fisted and greedy man, who despises Christmas and all things which give people happiness. Dickens describes him thus: "The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, made his eyes red, his thin lips blue, and he spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice ..." His last name has come into the English language as a byword for miserliness and misanthropy, traits displayed by Scrooge in the exaggerated manner for which Dickens is well-known. The tale of his redemption by the three Ghosts of Christmas (Ghost of Christmas Past, Ghost of Christmas Present, and Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come) has become a defining tale of the Christmas holiday. Scrooge's catchphrase, "Bah, humbug!" is often used to express disgust with many of the modern Christmas traditions.

In his diaries, Dickens states that Scrooge stems from a grave marker which he saw in 1841, while taking an evening walk in the Canongate Kirkyard in Edinburgh. The headstone was for the vintner Ebenezer Lennox Scroggie, a relative of Adam Smith, who had won the catering contract for the visit of George IV to Edinburgh and the first contract to supply whisky to the Royal Navy. The marker identified Scroggie as a "meal man" (corn merchant), but Dickens misread this as "mean man", due to the fading light and his mild dyslexia. Dickens wrote that it must have "shrivelled" Scroggie’s soul to carry "such a terrible thing to eternity". The grave marker was lost during construction work at part of the kirkyard in 1932.

Eddy Howard (September 12, 1914 – May 23, 1963) was an American vocalist and bandleader who was popular during the 1940s and 1950s.

Born in Woodland, California, and after attending San Jose State College from 1931 to 1933, Howard studied medicine at Stanford University before dropping out to become a singer of romantic ballads on Los Angeles radio. Later he sang with bands led by Ben Bernie and Dick Jurgens. His hits with Jurgens included "My Last Goodbye" and "Careless," which became his theme.

In 1939 Howard started his own band, and he was the regular vocalist on It Can Be Done, Edgar A. Guest's 1941 radio program on the Blue Network Wednesdays through Fridays. The first #1 single for Eddy Howard and his Orchestra, "To Each His Own", stayed at the top of the charts in the mid-1940s. The song was a tie-in with the 1946 Paramount film, To Each His Own, which brought Academy Awards for Olivia de Havilland and screenwriter Charles Brackett. The recording by Howard was released by Majestic Records as catalog number 7188 and 1070. It first reached the Billboard chart on July 11, 1946 and lasted nineteen weeks on the chart, peaking at #1.