Charles Robert Drysdale was an English engineer, physician, public health scientist, and supporter of birth control. He was the first President of the Malthusian League and he published books on a variety of topics including population control, syphilis, the evils of prostitution and the dangers of tobacco smoking.

Alice Vickery was an English physician, campaigner for women's rights, and the first British woman to qualify as a chemist and pharmacist. She and her life partner, Charles Robert Drysdale, also a physician, actively supported a number of causes, including free love, birth control, and destigmatisation of illegitimacy.