Sir John Rhŷs was a founding Fellow of the British Academy. He established himself as a Celtic scholar through research carried out when he was an HM Inspector of Schools in North Wales. He was appointed to the first professor of Celtic at Jesus College, Oxford, in 1877. Primarily a philologist, his interests included the early history of Wales, Celtic folklore, archaeology and ethnology – his work is regarded as the basis of the discipline of Celtic studies. He gave life-long public service to Wales. On his death, the British Academy established the Sir John Rhŷs Memorial Lecture, for ‘the promotion of Welsh and other studies’.

Solomon Solomon was one of the few well-known Jewish artists in nineteenth-century England. He painted portraits and interiors as well as large canvasses in the academic French style.