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Arthur McIvor is professor of social history at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, and a specialist in the history of work and occupational health. He is the joint author, with Ronnie Johnston, of 'Lethal work: a history of the asbestos tragedy in Scotland' (2000) and 'Miners' lung: a history of dust disease in British coal mining' (2007).

The University of Strathclyde was established by royal charter in August 1964, following the merger of the Royal College of Science and Technology with the Scottish College of Commerce. Discussions with the University Grants Committee had taken place for a decade before that, on the possibility of the Royal College entering a closer relationship with Glasgow University than its existing affiliation agreement. However, the granting of university status afforded the best opportunity for future development of the college. University departments were grouped in schools of study: mathematics, physics and computer science; chemical and materials sciences; mechanical and chemical engineering and naval architecture; civil and mining engineering and applied geology; electrical and electronic engineering; architecture, building science and planning; biological sciences; pharmaceutical sciences; arts and social studies; business and administration; and Strathclyde Business School. The schools of study were reorganised in 1982 into four faculties: of science, engineering, arts and social studies and business. In 1993, the university merged with Jordanhill College of Education. The college became the university's fifth faculty, of education, and continued to operate on the Jordanhill Campus in the west of the city, six miles distant from the John Anderson Campus in the city centre. With this merger, Strathclyde became the third largest university in Scotland.

John Connor was born on 23 June 1940 and grew up in Cambuslang, near Glasgow, Scotland. In the autumn of 1960, he enrolled at the Scottish School of Physical Education, located at Jordanhill College of Education in Glasgow, for a three-year course to train as a teacher of physical education. This he completed successfully, gaining his Diploma in June 1963 with merit in both teaching and professional subjects. Four months later, in October 1963, he returned to Jordanhill College of Education, this time to take a one-year postgraduate course to qualify as a primary school teacher, which he completed in June 1964. During his studies, fellow students gave him the nickname 'Sean' because of his physical resemblance to the Scottish actor, Sean Connery. John's brother, Joseph Connor, also attended Jordanhill College of Education to train as a teacher of chemistry.

John Connor was a talented footballer, having played at club level in Dundee before he embarked on teacher training. In or around 1964, he went to South Africa to play for Highlands Park Football Club, a team in the fourth tier of the South African Football League. As well as being a football player, and later a coach, he was an Ultra Marathon runner, completing at least six Comrades Marathons in South Africa. He also spent the whole of his teaching career in South Africa, taking up a post as a primary school mathematics teacher at King David School in Johannesburg, where he eventually became headmaster in 2005. After retiring from teaching, he relocated to Australia, where he died in 2014.

Jordanhill College of Education had its origin in the transfer of the responsibility for teacher education from church to state. Under the Education (Scotland) Act 1872 the control of schools in Scotland passed from heritors and kirk sessions to local school boards, but the churches continued to be responsible for teacher training colleges. By the early 20th century, however, this was an increasing financial burden for religious bodies and there was a need to increase student numbers to train teachers for secondary schools. Negotiations began to transfer the training colleges to secular control. Four provincial committees were formed in January 1905 based on the notional provinces served by the four ancient Scottish universities. These provincial committees were reconstituted in 1920 under the control of a National Committee for the Training of Teachers, acting through a Central Executive Committee. The Glasgow Provincial Committee for the Training of Teachers took over the Church of Scotland and United Free Church Training Colleges in 1907 and at first operated the combined college, the Glasgow Provincial Training College, on two sites at Dundas Vale and Stow.

The committee was keen to find a new site for the college and the choice fell on the estate of Jordanhill, the property of Sir James Parker Smith, MP. The sale was concluded in 1911 and work began on the training college building, a student hostel and a demonstration school. The move to the Jordanhill site took place in 1921 and the college was known as Jordanhill Training College from that date. The Glasgow Provincial Committee and the Central Executive Committee continued to administer the college until 1959 when under revised teacher training regulations, Jordanhill was constituted an independent college of education under its own board of governors.

In the post war era, student numbers increased dramatically, reaching a high point of 3500 full-time students in the early 1970s and later stabilising at around 2600 FTE (2000 FT). There was enormous pressure on accommodation and, between 1958 and 1973, new buildings were erected for technical education, science and physical education, and the Crawfurd and Wood buildings provided more generous general teaching accommodation, a theatre and a new, spacious library.

In 1981, the college merged with Hamilton College of Education. Later, in 1993, it merged with Strathclyde University, becoming the University's Faculty of Education.

Margaret Bradley was born on 29 September 1944 and brought up in Cowcaddens, Glasgow as one of a family of five children. She attended Garnethill Convent of Mercy Senior Secondary School from 1956 to 1960. After leaving school, she moved, aged 17, to the United States of America to work as a nanny, but soon returned to Glasgow, where she held a series of jobs including a clerical role in the Accounts Department at Glasgow Corporation, a post as a bank teller, and another as a cashier and bookkeeper. She also volunteered for several charities, including two that were particularly close to her heart: the Scottish Spina Bifida Association, for which she served as Honorary Secretary and Treasurer, and the Coeliac Society, for which she acted as Treasurer. One of Margaret's family members suffered from Spina Bifida, while she herself had Coeliac disease and tried to raise awareness of the condition at a time when it was relatively little known.

In the early 1970s, Margaret returned to education, taking a course in law accounting at Central College, Glasgow, which she passed in November 1971. She followed this by attending evening classes at the Glasgow High School Further Education Centre to gain the Scottish Certificate of Education (SCE) qualifications required for admission to university. In 1974, she sat and passed the SCE Ordinary Grade examination in Modern Studies, along with the SCE Higher Grade examinations in English and Geography; in 1975, she sat and passed the SCE Higher Grade examinations in Modern Studies, History and Accounting, and the SCE Ordinary Grade examination in French. In 1975, Margaret was accepted to study accountancy as a full-time, mature student at the University of Strathclyde. She graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Accountancy in 1979 and went on to a successful career in finance, ending her working life as head of finance for North Glasgow Housing Association. She married Cheng Eng Oo in 1985, but the couple divorced in 2005 and had no children.

Margaret had a lifelong love of travel, which retirement gave her the freedom to pursue. Both intrepid and resourceful, she delighted in exploring different countries all over the world. She also enjoyed ballroom dancing and had an appreciation for fine art, collecting modern abstract oil paintings, studio pottery and oriental artwork. She died, aged 78, in 2023.

Flynn was born in Farnborough, Kent, and grew up in Scotland. After completing high school in Edinburgh, he studied sociology, philosophy and economics at the London School of Economics (LSE). Among his teachers were John Westergaard, Orlando Patterson and the Marxist sociologist Ralph Miliband.

Following his graduation from the LSE in 1968 (BA Hons Sociology), Flynn embarked on a career in journalism. After a brief period as copy boy in the composing room of 'The Times', he worked as trainee reporter at \Construction News\, then for the \Socialist Worker\ (1972-1978). One of the investigations he conducted under the supervision of Sidney Lenssen, the editor of \Construction News\, led to his first encounter with asbestos, a word and an industry of which Flynn had not previously been aware. In the spring of 1974 he wrote 'Asbestos murders', a series of articles in the \Socialist Worker\ indicting the Scottish lagging industry. A pamphlet version appeared under the title \Asbestos: the dust that kills in the name of profit.

In 1979 Flynn joined World in Action (WIA), Granada Television's current affairs programme. Initially he contributed as a researcher, eventually as senior producer. Flynn won journalistic prizes for the documentaries 'Dust to dust' (an investigation of the scandalous conditions in British and South African-owned asbestos mines in the Northern Cape, 1981) and 'The betrayal of Bhopal' (which uncovered the business malpractices of Union Carbide in India, 1985). The WIA documentary on the Kinross gold mining disaster, 'Death is part of the process' (1986), was selected as the ITV entry for the Montreux Festival.

From 1990 Flynn freelanced for nearly a decade for the BBC, ITV and Channel Four. In 1998 he joined the editorial staff of \The Guardian\ as part of a two person investigation unit, famously exposing the much-garlanded Carlton documentary 'The connection' as a fabrication. For this he received (jointly with Michael Sean Gillard) the Scoop of the Year at the British Press Awards, 1999.

Since 2002 he has been freelancing again. The conclusions of the last project of \The Guardian\ investigation unit prior to his and Gillard's departure appeared in book-form in 2004, under the title 'Untouchables: dirty cops, bent justice and racism in Scotland Yard' (London: Bloomsbury) .

Flynn's notable output further includes:

• 'A small town tragedy' (1982), a WIA documentary about the refusal of a British asbestos company to pay compensation awarded against them in an American Court to workers in their North American subsidiary
• 'Studded with diamonds and paved with gold: miners, mining companies and human rights in Southern Africa' (1992, London: Bloomsbury)
• (with Geoffrey Tweedale) 'Piercing the corporate veil: Cape Industries and multinational corporate liability for a toxic hazard, 1950-2004', 'Enterprise and society' 8 (2) (2007), 268-296, DOI: 10.1017/S1467222700005863

The University Management Committee Business Review Group replaced the University Management Secretariat.

William Drury was born in Burton-on-Trent, England, in 1876. He studied at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge and became an army chaplain, serving in the Boer War and the First World War. Whilst stationed in Woolwich he developed an interest in civilian life, attending lectures by an expert on poor law and housing. He attached himself to a charitable society and studied its theory and methods of work, and involved himself in debates of the Christian Social Union. As a result of this, he developed an interest in urban planning, and researched and wrote extensively on the subject. He was a founder member of the English Linear Cities Association. He left the army in the mid 1920s and became rector at Binsted, near Arundel, Sussex where he lived for the rest of his life.

Neil Rafeek was born in London, the middle of three brothers. His father Taureq Rafeek was a town planner and the family regularly moved with his work. From London they moved to Bristol, then Edinburgh (where Neil attended primary school), then Sunderland. Neil Rafeek's experience at secondary school there prevented him from successfully completing his early education. Leaving with just one O-level, he entered the building trade to train as a bricklayer. Subsequently he enrolled at the University of Strathclyde as a mature student and went on to do a PhD on women in the Communist party in Scotland 1920-1991 (1998). It was the first oral history based PhD awarded in the Department of History. Rafeek actively helped to build, manage and run the Scottish Oral History Centre (SOHC) at the University of Strathclyde.