Said Amir Shah was a London-based silk merchant and warehouseman. He ran a business with his brother Fazal Shah on White Church Lane, and held a shop at 36 Montague Street. He also worked as a contractor for film companies, finding Indians (predominantly former lascars and hawkers) for crowd scenes, and in 1942 founded a company named Shah Film Corporation with John Kartar Singh and Herbert Bundy as his co-directors. A highly resourceful individual, during his time in Britain Shah was involved in a number of anti-colonial organizations and activities. Indeed, V. K. Krishna Menon reportedly cultivated Shah because of his connections, especially with working-class Indians in the East End of London.

Government officials first became aware of Shah through his involvement with the London branch of the Indian National Congress in the 1930s. After a brief period of involvement with the East End branch of Menon’s India League, he went on to become a prominent figure in the Committee of Indian Congressmen (led by Amiya Nath Bose and Pulin Behari Seal), under whose auspices he created an Indian National Muslim Committee which was strongly anti-Pakistan. He also aided lascars in their struggle for workers’ rights, acting as a court interpreter for those involved in criminal cases, and was an active member of the Hindustani Social Club.

In addition, Shah was a leading figure in the Jamiat-ul-Muslimin; in the 1940s he held the post of treasurer, and, according to government reports, he was responsible for opening various provincial branches of the organization in Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow. Shah campaigned for a mosque to serve the Muslim community in the East End of London, and was instrumental in the foundation of the East London Mosque in 1941. He made a speech at its inauguration ceremony, and played a leading role in its management and affairs subsquently. He was the main agitator on behalf of the Jamiat-ul-Muslimin in its struggle against the trustees for control over the mosque in 1943.

G. W. Leitner was a Jewish educationist. He moved to London in about 1858 having studied Islam in Constantinopole. He studied divinity at King's College London and then taught Arabic, Turkish and modern Greek. In 1864 Leitner was appointed principal of the Government College at Lahore, and spent the next fifteen years in India. He helped to raise money to transform the Government College into the Oriental University of the Punjab. He founded a number of schools, societies, established journals in India and wrote a number of travelogues.

In 1881, Leitner returned to England. In 1883 he established the Oriental Institute in Woking. This teaching institute also contained an Oriental Museum and a notable art collection. In 1896 Leitner began to edit the Asiatic Review from the Institute. In 1889, the Shah Jahan Mosque was established in the Institute, with a bequest from Shah Jahan, the begum of Bhopal.

William Quilliam founded the Liverpool Mosque and Muslim Institute in 1891. He had converted to Islam in 1887. In 1894, the Ottoman Emperor declared Quilliam the Sheikh-ul-Islam of Britain.

Abdul Majid was the Imam of the Shah Jahan Mosque, Woking, and an editor of the Islamic Review.

Grandson of the poet and judge Khwaja Abdur Rasheed, eminent lawyer and Islamic scholar Khwaja Kamaluddin was born in Punjab in 1870. In 1893, he graduated from Forman Christian College in Lahore where he was drawn to Christianity before becoming inspired by the writings of the founder of the Ahmidyaa Movement. Kamaluddin worked as a lecturer and then as principal of Islamia College, Lahore, then graduated in law in 1898 and started a legal practice in Peshawar. He wrote extensively on Islam, and delivered lectures across the Indian subcontinent, also raising funds for Aligarh University.

Kamaluddin travelled to Britain in 1912 to pursue a legal case on behalf of a client. He settled in Kingston and gave his first British public talk on Islam at Speaker's Corner, Hyde Park. Soon afterwards, he took control of the Shah Jahan Mosque in Woking with the support of Syed Ameer Ali, Sir Abbas Ali Beg and Sir Thomas Arnold. He established the Woking Muslim Mission and Literary Trust there, as well as the journal The Islamic Review (1913-67) through which he and other contributors sought to counter misconceptions about Islam among the British. During his time in Britain, he delivered several lectures, including at Cambridge University and the Lyceum Club, on topics such as the comparative merits of Islam and Christianity and the position of women in Islam. He also oversaw several conversions at the Shah Jahan Mosque.

In 1914 Kamaluddin returned to India, remaining there for two years then travelling between India and Britain for the next few years. Throughout this time, he remained concerned with the problems faced by Muslims in India as well as with perceptions of Islam in Britain. He was elected member of the League of Nations Union in 1923, the same year that he performed hajj with the convert Lord Headley. He died in 1922.

Shah Abdul Majid Qureshi was born in a village in Sylhet, the eldest of three brothers and a sister. His father was forced to sell his land after spending much of his income on educating his sons, and the family lived in impoverished circumstances. To escape a life of hardship and help his family, Qureshi decided to follow the example of many of his fellow Sylhetis and try to get work on a ship with a view to migrating to America or Britain. With this in mind, he left for Calcutta in 1934. After various failed attempts, he finally managed to escape from a ship docked at Tilbury, making his way to east London where he found lodgings with other recently arrived Sylhetis.

Qureshi began his working life in Britain selling chocolates in pubs. He soon moved on to working in various Indian restaurants (including the Bengal Restaurant in Percy Street) and, in 1938, opened his first restaurant, Dilkush Delight, in Windmill Street, Soho. By 1944, he owned a different restaurant off Charlotte Street. This became known as the 'India Centre' because numerous politically active South Asians congregated there for meetings. During this period, Qureshi himself became involved in political and welfare activities concerning the South Asian community in London. He was an active member of the Hindustani Social Club and co-founder (with Ayub Ali) and President of the Indian Seamen's Welfare League. He also attended some India League meetings. A Muslim, Qureshi worshipped at the East London Mosque and helped form the London Muslim League with Abbas Ali.

Qureshi married on his first return trip to Sylhet in 1946 and eventually, in the 1970s, brought his wife and children to England where the family remained.