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John Mar was born in Victoria, British Columbia in St. Joseph's Hospital on December 30, 1932. His father, Mar Tim Shun was born in Canton, Hang San, China on November 30, 1891 and came to Canada in 1912. His mother, Loretta Sue Mar Sen, was born in Canton and emigrated to Canada in 1914. The couple married in Victoria in 1923.

The Mar family moved to Port Alberni when John was a child. He attended Eight Avenue Elementary School from 1940 to 1946 and the Alberni District Secondary School where he graduated in the spring of 1951. In the fall of 1951, he enrolled in the University of British Columbia's Faculty of Engineering as a candidate for the Bachelor of Applied Science in Mechanical Engineering and received his degree with distinction in May 1956. In his first years at University, Mar spent his summers logging on Vancouver Island to pay for tuition. He later won a position as a summer student working for the Department of National Defence (DND). As a student working for DND Mar worked in labs in Churchill, Manitoba where one of his first significant assignments was to design the first colour camera capable of photographing the Northern Lights.

By the time Mar finished his degree he had a full scholarship and a researcher's position with Canada's military. After graduation he spent two years in Esquimalt, BC for Canada's Naval Labs before being reassigned to Val Cartier, Québec where he worked on defense systems; specifically military ballistics and anti-tank penetration artillery. During this period Mar also worked on the East Coast where he worked on testing naval defence systems on ships and submarines with sonar and torpedo systems. This work also involved the American military.

Mar moved on to the Canadian space program in 1959 when the Department of National Defence assembled a group of scientists to work on satellite communications. Mar was integrally involved as the lead engineer for mechanical engineering in the design of Canada's first satellites, the Alouette I and II. During this work Mar coordinated with staff of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). He worked in West Virginia's Space Program, the Kennedy Space Center, and Vandenburg Air Force Base, California where he assisted in the launch of Alouette I.

In 1965 John Mar completed Master of Engineering course credits at Carleton University. Among his engineering accomplishments, he lists five patents and 65 publications. In 1970 his engineering work won him an Inventor Award from the Canadian Patents and Development Corporation. In 1971 he won a NASA Group Achievement Award, and in 1987 he received a Government of Canada Award for his work on Alouette I. After twelve years in the space program, Mar was selected as the Chief Scientific Advisor to the Vice-Chief of Defence Staff for DND. He concentrated on research into long range techniques to rescue aircraft in Canada's north.

During his career Mr. Mar worked for eight different departments of federal government. After service in Canada's space program, he moved to Edmonton where he worked as the Regional Director for the Environmental Protection Centre of Environment Canada. His area of responsibility covered all three Prairie Provinces and the Northwest Territories. He followed this career position with a move to Yellowknife where he was the Federal Coordinator of the Norman Wells Project for Indian and Northern Affairs (DIAND). From this position he moved to Whitehorse as the Regional Director for Health and Welfare Services Branch, Canada where he was responsible for all health care in the Yukon including the management of four hospitals and several dozen nursing stations. While living in Whitehorse, Mar and his wife Irene started a management consulting business working with the public sector in all levels of government. They also worked and taught for eight years at the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC).

On October 31, 1991 John Mar took early retirement from his senior executive position with the federal government in the Yukon and moved to Victoria. He died there on September 9, 2004.

The Mara Estate Limited was established in 1920 to assist the British Columbia Land and Investment Agency in the administration of the estate of John Andrew Mara (d. 1920). At the initial meeting, John Lytton Mara was appointed director and A.R. Wolfenden of the BCLIA was appointed secretary. In 1936 R.H. Shanks replaced A.R. Wolfenden as secretary. Shares in the company were distributed evenly between John Lytton Mara and Ellen Frances Morkill (nee Mara).

Born in Toronto, John Andrew Mara came to B.C. with the Overlanders in 1862. He was a miner and steamboat owner in the Kamloops area and ultimately became involved in federal and provincial politics, representing Yale from 1871 to 1896.

Gary Marcuse is a Vancouver writer and radio broadcaster.

Local No. 1 of the Marine Workers and Boilermakers Industrial Union is based in Vancouver and undertook an oral history project in 1975-1976 to assist in writing a history of shipbuilding in B.C.

The Marine Workers and Boilermakers Industrial Union was established in 1927 following a break from the International Boilermakers Union and an amalgamation with Victoria’s Local 191 of the International Boilermakers. The Union quickly became affiliated with the Canadian Congress of Labour and received its charter in 1928.

In 1944, the Marine Workers joined forces with other shipbuilding unions and formed the Shipyard General Workers Federation in order to present a strong and united voice on behalf of west coast organized labour.

The end of the Second World War marked the name change to the Marine Workers and Boilermakers Local 1 as the Union amalgamated with several other bodies, including the Boilermakers and Iron Shipbuilders Local 1, the Dock and Shipyard Workers Union and the Shipwrights and Caulkers Industrial Union Local 1.

The Maritime Museum of British Columbia is located in Victoria, B.C.

Daphne Marlatt was a researcher.

Alfred Marler was a resident of Alert Bay, B.C.

Audrey Marley was an Anglican Sunday School teacher in the Peace River district.

Edward Marriner owned farms at Somenos and Cowichan Bay.

Earl John Marsh was born on April 21, 1908 in Bellingham, Washington. In May of 1924, at the age of 16, Marsh began working for the British Columbia Coast Steamship Service (BCCSS), a branch of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company that provided passenger and freight steamship services to Washington State, British Columbia, and southern Alaska. Marsh originally worked as an office boy and freight clerk, but in October 1928, he took up a position in the accounting department, where he stayed for the remainder of his professional life. Marsh achieved the title of “Accountant” in 1947, and until 1963, he worked from the BCCSS office located in Victoria, BC.

Marsh married Susan Petticrew Walton on April 25, 1949. The couple had no children.

In 1963, Marsh moved to Vancouver when the company office relocated there. Soon after, he discovered that the BCCSS had made no formal effort to preserve its history. Fearing the company would soon cease to exist, Marsh began to compile his own private collection of BCCSS records. Carrying out his collecting activities on his own time, Marsh consulted with other BCCSS employees, and with archivists and librarians. In 1964, Marsh’s work was approved by the Marine Superintendent of the BCCSS, Mr. Harry Tyson, who envisioned the collection’s final transfer to a cultural heritage institution. The bulk of Marsh’s collecting took place before he retired in May of 1973.

In 1975 and 1976, Marsh returned to work, managing payrolls for the Princess Marguerite II, a BCCSS ship that had been taken over by the newly-formed provincial crown corporation British Columbia Steamship Company (1975) Limited.

Marsh spent his last years in Victoria, where he remained in contact with former BCCSS employees and with noted marine historians, some of whom made use of his collection. Notably, he maintained contact with the family of Captain James William Troup, the first manager of the BCCSS, and William Kaye Lamb, Dominion Archivist of Canada. Marsh died on October 3, 1999 in Victoria at the age of 91 after willing the entirety of his collection to the BC Archives.

Frederick Marsh was a writer from Gabriola Island.

John T. Marshall was Director of Vital Statistics for British Columbia as well as Assistant Dominion Statistician from 1947-1963. He participated in activities of the United Nations and the World Health Organization.

The Newbury and Martin families lived in Victoria, B.C.