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Albert E. Roland was Provincial Botanist for the Nova Scotia Department of Agriculture and Professor Emeritus of Biology at the Nova Scotia Agricultural College. Born in Aylesford, Kings County, in 1911, he graduated from Acadia University with a BA in 1931 before attending University of Toronto to study plant pathology, earning an MA in 1936, and then the University of Wisconsin, where he was granted a PhD in 1944.

In 1944 he joined the Nova Scotia Department of Agriculture and started teaching at the Nova Scotia Agricultural College. He was an active researcher and writer and published prolifically, including the seminal Flora of Nova Scotia (1944), which was revised in 1988 as Roland's Flora of Nova Scotia (ed. Marian Zink); Geological Background and Physiogeography of Nova Scotia (1982); and, with Randal Olson, Spring Wildflowers (1993). The herbarium collection at the Nova Scotia Agricultural College is named in recognition of his lifelong contribution to the understanding of Nova Scotia's natural history.

Albert Roland was a member of the Nova Scotia Institute of Science, the Agricultural Institute of Canada, the Nova Scotia Institute of Agrologists, and the Canadian Botanical Association. He served as president of the Nova Scotia Institute of Agrologists (1958-1959) and became a fellow of the Agricultural Institute of Canada in 1971. Named as one of thirty outstanding graduates of Acadia University between 1910-1960, he was granted an honorary DSc from Acadia (1972), the centennial medal (1967) and an LLD from Dalhousie University (1980). He died in September 1991 in Truro, Nova Scotia.

Brigadier Richard Edward Graham Roome was born on 1 May 1892 to George and Florence Roome in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. His early education took place in local public schools and he attended Halifax County Academy for secondary school. In 1913 he began a Bachelor of Arts program at Dalhousie University, but left in 1915 before completing his degree, to join the 2nd Heavy Battery, Royal Canadian Artillery. In England he was commissioned with the Royal Field Artillery of the British Army in September 1915. During World War I Roome saw action first in France, where he was wounded, and later in India and Mesopotamia.

After the war Roome returned to Canada and co-founded Harris and Roome Ltd., a wholesale distribution company specializing in electrical items, hardware, and batteries. He served as vice president but remained active in the local militia, most notably helping to form the 87th Field Battery in Dartmouth in 1921.

With the onset of World War II Roome returned to active duty, training troops and visiting training camps across Canada. He organized the CANLOAN program, which enabled surplus Canadian officers to serve in the British Army, which by 1943 was suffering from a serious shortage of younger infantry officers. From 1940-41 Roome was posted overseas as the Commanding Officer of the 5th Field Regiment of the Royal Canadian Artillery. In 1942 he returned to Canada, was promoted to brigadier, and placed in command of the Artillery of the 7th Divisions based in Eastern Canada. Roome’s stay in Eastern Canada was short; in 1943 he became Deputy Adjutant General for Officers and posted to National Defense Headquarters in Ottawa, where he also became chairman of the Officer’s Selection, Promotion, Reclassification and Disposal Board. In 1945 he was awarded the Commander of the British Empire medal for his service. Roome remained in Ottawa until the end of the war when he retired from active service.

In 1946 Roome returned to the Halifax area where he resumed work at Harris and Roome Ltd. and began commanding local militia units. He retired in earnest in 1951, but maintained his interest in military history, researching and writing a series of articles on the American Civil War for the Canadian Gunner.

Roome died in August of 1985 at age 93. He is known to have had one daughter, Lorna, with wife Helen (Jones).

John Shenstone Roper was born in St. John's, Newfoundland, but was largely educated in Halifax, attending first Halifax County Academy and then Dalhousie University, where he earned a BA in 1910, an MA in 1911 (by examination in Shakespeare), and an LLB in 1913. He was editor of The Dalhousie Gazette and, while at law school, served as a lieutenant with the Dalhousie branch of the Canadian Officers' Training Corp (COTC). Roper practised law in Halifax for several years before receiving a commission in the 85th Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force. After various assignments at home, he was made an acting captain in 1917 and sent overseas in early 1918, where he fought in France and was awarded the Military Cross. He continued his military involvement after returning to Halifax, practicing law alongside serving as a brigade major and later the commanding officer of his former COTC.

He was a solicitor for the Nova Scotia Highways Board for three years before being appointed to the Nova Scotia Public Utilities Board from 1928-1938. He sat on the Board of Governors for Dalhousie University, served as secretary-treasurer of The Dalhousie Review, and was a longtime member of the Dalhousie Alumni Society. He also was president of the Studley Quoits Club for some time in the 1930s.

John Roper was married to Gladys Una Smith in 1915, whom he met when they were both students at Dalhousie. Their marriage ended in divorce with no children. He died at Camp Hill Military Hospital in 1946.

The Reverend Theodore Ross was born in North Bedeque, Prince Edward Island, on 6 May 1876, to farmers Murdoch and Margaret Ross. He received his education at Prince of Wales College in Charlottetown, Dalhousie University (BA, 1899), and the Ontario Agricultural College, Guelph. He taught at Prince of Wales College and worked ca. 1919-1921 at Pine Hill, Halifax Presbyterian Theological College, which also served as a residence for Dalhousie students. During this time he worked as the provincial organizer for Dalhousie's Million Dollar Campaign committee.

Ross served as Secretary of Agriculture with the PEI government ca. 1913-, during which time he wrote numerous reports and papers on agricultural matters. He was ordained to the ministry in 1921 and served the United Church in Nova Scotia until his retirement in 1952. Ross died in Summerside, PEI, in 1959. He was married to Florence Annear of Lower Montaque, PEI, with whom he had one son and two daughters.

William Roué was a naval architect and the designer of Nova Scotia's famous Bluenose schooner. Born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on 27 April 1879 to James and Grace (Penaligan) Roué, he married Winnifred Conrod in 1908, with whom he had four children: James, Harry, William and Frances. Roué developed a passion for boating at early age, built toy boats as a child and designed his first mathematically calculated yacht for his mentor Frank H. Bell in 1907. He studied mechanical drafting at the Victoria School of Art and Design and in 1920 he was contracted to design a fishing schooner to compete for the International Fisherman’s Trophy. His design, the Bluenose, was launched in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, on 26 March 1921, and went on to win many other awards.

Roué also worked for his father’s firm, Roué Carbonated Waters. After the sale of the firm in 1929, Roué became a full-time naval architect. In 1934 he moved to City Island, New York, to join the naval architecture firm Ford and Payne, which became Ford, Payne, and W.J. Roué. He returned to Nova Scotia in 1936 and in 1942 he invented the sectional barge. Roué worked as a naval architect until his death on 27 February 1970.