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William James Adair Nelson, the elder son of H. Adair Nelson who was the original manager of His Majesty's Theatre, Aberdeen, was educated at Aberdeen Grammar School (1914-24). On leaving school he was apprenticed to chartered accountants Williamson & Dunn, qualifying with distinction in 1930 when he took up a series of appointments with London accounting firms, followed by five years in Colombo working for Ford, Rhodes & Thornton. He served in the Royal Artillery in the Middle East during WWII. In 1946 he was appointed Finance Inspector to the Ministry of Food in Colwyn Bay, later becoming Finance Officer to the National Coal Board. In 1948 he was appointed Treasurer and Assistant Secretary at Aberdeen University where he remained until his retirement in 1975.

During his five years in Sri Lanka he developed an interest in castles and artillery fortifications and after his retirement he wrote Dutch Forts of Sri Lanka published in 1984. He then went on to study Fort Jesus at Mombasa and his book of the same name was published posthumously in 1994. Nelson was an active member of the Fortress Study Group for which he wrote many articles.

William Harold Ingrams, OBE CMG, was a British colonial administrator who served in Zanzibar, Mauritius, the Aden Protectorate, the British Zone in post-WW2 Germany, and the Gold Coast. He is best known for his posting in Mukalla, together with his wife Doreen, where he oversaw the Hadhramaut region and brokered a truce between feuding tribes known as "Ingrams' Peace".

Sir William Foster CIE was a British historiographer and civil servant who was Registrar and Superintendent of Records in the India Office. He was a member of the Hakluyt Society and an authority on the detailed history of early British relations with India and other countries in Asia.

William Edward Maxwell, born in 1846, was the son of Sir Peter Benson Maxwell, the Chief Justice of the Straits Settlements. Maxwell followed in his father's footsteps, training in the legal profession and working within colonial administration. In 1883, Maxwell was appointed Commissioner of Land Titles in the Straits Settlements, and, therefore, Member of the Executive and Legislative Councils of those Settlements. In 1889, he was appointed the Resident of Selangor. He became the Colonial Secretary of the Straits Settlements in 1892, and was acting governor from 30 August 1893 to 1 February 1894. During this time Maxwell was actively involved with the Singapore Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, serving as President, Vice-President, and Editor of the Journal, to which he contributed a number of articles. He was avidly interested in the Malay language.

In 1895, he was transferred to be Governor of the Gold Coast (Ghana). Maxwell died at sea, from malaria, near the Canary Isles, in 1897, and was buried at sea. He requested that all his private papers and diaries were burnt. Fortunately, this did not include the many manuscripts which he had collected. These were bequeathed to the Royal Asiatic Society.

William Edward David Allen was born in London in 1901 and educated at Eton before travelling and working in journalism. He had a lifelong passion for the history of the Caucasus region and in particular the Georgian area. He travelled much in the area and had an extensive library on Russian and Caucasian affairs. With Sir Oliver Wardrop, he founded the Georgian Society in 1930.

The material in these Papers reflects his passion for the Caucasus and is concerned with his some of his literary endeavours and publications. He was known as Bill by his close friends and W. E. D. Allen in official correspondence and publication. This is seen within these Papers. He had connections with Oswald Mosley's New Party and was a close friend of Mosley.

William Cowan was an officer in the Chinese Protectorate in Malaya (Malaysia) working as assistant and then protector in the Perak area. He monitored the Chinese Secret Societies as well as implementing health and other reforms.