Nancy Witcher Astor, Viscountess Astor, CH, (19 May 1879 – 2 May 1964) was the first woman to sit as a Member of Parliament (MP) in the British House of Commons. Nancy Astor, a Conservative Party representative, was the wife of Waldorf Astor, 2nd Viscount Astor.

Astor was born Nancy Witcher Langhorne in Danville, Virginia, in the United States. Her father was Chiswell Dabney Langhorne and her mother was Nancy Witcher Keene. Her father's earlier business venture had depended at least in part upon slave labour, and the outcome of the American Civil War caused the family to live in near-poverty for several years before Nancy was born. After her birth her father began working to regain the family wealth, first with a job as an auctioneer and later with a job that he obtained with the railroad by using old contacts from his work as a contractor. By the time she was thirteen years old, the Langhornes were again a rich family with a sizeable home. Chiswell Langhorne later moved the family to their estate, known as Mirador, in Albemarle County, Virginia.

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, KG, OM, CH, TD, PC, DL, FRS, Hon. RA (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British Conservative politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. Widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century, he served as Prime Minister twice (1940–45 and 1951–55). A noted statesman and orator, Churchill was also an officer in the British Army, a historian, a writer, and an artist. He is the only British prime minister to have received the Nobel Prize in Literature, and was the first person to be made an Honorary Citizen of the United States.

Churchill was born into the aristocratic family of the Dukes of Marlborough. His father, Lord Randolph Churchill, was a charismatic politician who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer; his mother, Jenny Jerome, was an American socialite. As a young army officer, he saw action in British India, the Sudan, and the Second Boer War. He gained fame as a war correspondent and wrote books about his campaigns.

Stanley Myers (6 October 1930 – 9 November 1993), was a prolific British film composer who scored over sixty films. He also wrote the guitar piece "Cavatina".

Myers was born in Birmingham, and as a teenager went to King Edward's School in Edgbaston, a suburb of Birmingham.

Myers wrote incidental music for television, for example a 1964 serial in the television series Doctor Who, the theme to All Gas and Gaiters and the theme for the BBC's Question Time.

He is known for composing music for cult films House of Whipcord, Frightmare and House of Mortal Sin for filmmaker Peter Walker.

He is best known for "Cavatina" (1970), an evocative guitar piece that served as the signature theme for Michael Cimino's 1978 film The Deer Hunter, and for which Myers won the Ivor Novello Award. A somewhat different version of this work, performed by John Williams, had appeared in The Walking Stick. And yet another version had lyrics added. Cleo Laine and Iris Williams, in separate recordings as He Was Beautiful, helped to make "Cavatina" become even more popular.

Nancy Lancaster (9 September 1897 – 19 August 1994) was a 20th-century tastemaker and the owner of Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler, an influential British decorating firm that codified what is known as the English country-house look.

Born Nancy Keene Perkins at her maternal grandfather's farm, Mirador, in Greenwood, near Charlottesville, Virginia, and brought up in Richmond and New York City, she was the elder daughter of Thomas Moncure Perkins, a Virginia cotton broker, and his wife, Elizabeth Langhorne. Nancy Lancaster was also a niece of Nancy Astor, the British politician, and of Irene Gibson, the wife of the Gibson Girl artist Charles Dana Gibson. Her cousin Joyce Grenfell was a celebrated British monologuist and actress.

Lancaster's innate taste was only complimented by John Fowler's (her decorator partner) sense of color and knowledge of historic interiors. Although she always believed that a room should never look "decorated', she created this list of 7 rules to follow to make a room look "comfortable": 1- In restoring a house, one must first realize its period, feel its personality, and try to bring out its good points; 2- Decorating must be appropriate; 3- Scale is of prime importance, and I think that oversized scale is better than undersized scale; 4- In choosing a color,one must remember that it changes in different aspects; 5- Understatement is extremely important, and crossing too many t's and dotting too many i's make a room look overdone and tiresome. One should create something that fires the imagination without overemphasis; 6- I never think that sticking slavishly to one period is successful; a touch of nostalgia adds charm. One needs light and shade, because if every piece is perfect, the room becomes a museum and lifeless; 7- A gentle mixture of furniture expresses life and continuity, but it must be a delicious mixture that flows and mixes well. It is a bit like mixing a salad. I am better at mixing rooms than salads.