Terence James Stannus Gray was born in Felixstowe, Suffolk, England on 14 September 1895. He was raised on an estate in the Gog Magog Hills outside Cambridge, England and educated at Ascham St Vincent's School, Eastbourne, Eton and Oxford University. Early in life he pursued an interest in Egyptology which culminated in the publication of two books on ancient Egyptian history and culture in 1923. In 1926, Gray, with no previous practical theatrical experience, opened the Cambridge Festival Theatre as an experimental playhouse. After he had apparently exhausted his interest in the theatre, his thoughts turned towards philosophy and metaphysics. This led to a period of travel throughout Asia. Between the years 1958 and 1974 eight books and articles in various periodicals appeared under the pseudonym "Wei Wu Wei". In the later part of his life he lived with his second wife, the Georgian princess Natalie Margaret Imeretinsky, in Monaco and became interested in Georgian history. Gray maintained his family's racehorses in England and Ireland and in 1957 his horse Zarathrustra won the Ascot Gold Cup, ridden by jockey Lester Piggott in the first of his eleven wins of that race.

Peter Lewis Shinnie was a British archaeologist and Nubiologist. Educated at Westminster School and Oxford, he served in the RAF during the Second World War before beginning his archaeological career in Sudan. He researched the ancient Nubian civilisation of Meroe, established Khartoum’s antiquities museum and founded the journal _Kush_. Subsequently, he worked in Uganda, Ghana and Canada, becoming a leading authority on African history and archaeology.