Joseph Wharton (March 3, 1826 – January 11, 1909) was a prominent Philadelphia merchant, industrialist and philanthropist, who was involved in mining, manufacturing and education. He founded the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, co-founded the Bethlehem Steel company, and was one of the founders of Swarthmore College.

Wharton was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1826, the fifth child of ten in a liberal Hicksite Quaker family. His parents William Wharton and Deborah Fisher Wharton were both from prominent early American immigrant families of Quaker descent. Interestingly, both of Wharton's grandmothers were named Hannah and were from Newport, Rhode Island. Wharton's maternal grandfather, Samuel R. Fisher ran a prosperous mercantile business and shipping packet line between Philadelphia and London, England. Wharton's youth was spent in the family's house near Spruce and 4th Streets in downtown Philadelphia and at the country mansion "Bellevue". Wharton's father was a typical gentleman, and did not hold a regular job because he had several illnesses, but oversaw his estate, served on the Philadelphia School Board, and was active with his wife Deborah in the Hicksite ministry. From their country estate, the family often went to the nearby Schuylkill River, visited neighboring estates such as Deborah's grandfather Joshua Fisher's The Cliffs, and went on weekend horse and carriage excursions to the countryside surrounding Philadelphia, sometimes attending the smaller Quaker Meetings.

Michael Wharton (19 April 1913 – 23 January 2006) was a newspaper columnist who wrote under the pseudonym Peter Simple in the British Daily Telegraph. He began work on the "Way of the World" column with illustrator Michael ffolkes three times a week in early 1957. In 1990 he began a weekly Peter Simple column in the Sunday Telegraph, before returning to the Daily Telegraph as a weekly columnist in 1996. He remained there until his death, aged 92, in 2006, his last column appearing on 20 January 2006.

Wharton was born as Michael Bernhard Nathan, the son of a businessman of German-Jewish origin, at Shipley, in the West Riding of Yorkshire ("Wharton" was the maiden name of his mother). Wharton was educated at Bradford Grammar School and Lincoln College, Oxford. His career at Oxford was undistinguished, partly because he spent his time writing Sheldrake, a novel that had little success when published in 1958. After Oxford, Wharton served in the Royal Artillery from 1940 to 1946. He then worked for the BBC as a producer and scriptwriter, but left in 1956.

Joseph Henry Sadler (born c. 1839) was a British professional rower who twice won the World Sculling Championship. Before 1876, the English Sculling Championship was considered to be the premier event in professional sculling. In 1876, the English Title gained the World status and earlier winners were retrospectively given the title of World Champion.

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Sadler, who lived in London and worked as a chimney-sweep, rowed his first great match in 1865, at the Thames Regatta Sculls. His opponent was T. Hoare, who was reputed the second greatest contemporary oarsman after English sculling champion Harry Kelley, of whom Sadler was a pupil. Sadler won easily, and the following year on November 22, 1866, contested the English Sculling Championship against Robert Chambers. Kelley, Sadler's mentor, had retired that year, leaving the championship title an open race between Sadler and Chambers. Halfway through the race Sadler seemed to have the measure of his opponent, but Chambers took the lead and did not relinquish it.