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Initially, William Hoare left Ottawa for Herschel Island to act for the Anglican Church as a missionary. He returned after five years and married Catherine Cowan, who had been training to be a nurse in Ottawa. In 1920 they traveled to Aklavik, where they were to establish an Anglican mission. The couple remained in the north until 1931, with William Hoare eventually working for the Government of the Northwest Territories and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (R.C.M.P.) until 1931, when they returned to Ottawa.

Mary Craig Murphy was born in [Dawson City] Yukon, in 1909/1910. She was a graduate of Toronto General Hospital School of Nursing, and in the early part of her career worked at Fort William and northern Ontario mining communities. She served as a volunteer in the Red Cross Corps in Scotland during WWII. Mary Murphy arrived in Yellowknife on November 29, 1947 to assume the position of matron nurse at the new Yellowknife Red Cross Hospital. Her duties included hospital administration as well as nursing supervision. Within the community, Mary was active in the Daughters of the Midnight Sun and the Trinity Anglican Church. She resigned from her position at the hospital in spring of 1959 and left Yellowknife on July 23, 1959. She nursed in Burlington, Ontario in the 1960s and moved to New Westminster BC to be close to her siblings in the late 1960s. Mary died in New Westminster, BC on December 20, 1969. As a memorial to her legacy in Yellowknife, the seniors care home that opened in Yellowknife in early 1970 was named the Mary Murphy Seniors Home.

Merle Shaw was born in Calgary, Alberta on June 19th, 1921. After graduating from Western Canada High School, she began training as a nurse at Calgary General Hospitcal from [approx.] 1940-1943. Following graduation, she obtained a job at the Toronto General Hospital, where she worked until 1946. In 1947 she moved up to Yellowknife where she obtained a job as a nurse at the Red Cross Hospital (now Stanton Hospital). Throughout her time in Yellowknife, Merle established relationships with other nurses and families in Yellowknife as well as the surrounding mining communities. She returned to Calgary in 1949, where she married Ed Featherstone. She died on December 6th, 2001.