Byatt was born on the 22nd of March, 1875, in Tottenham, Middlesex to schoolmaster Horace Byatt M.A., of Midhurst, Sussex, and Laura (née Archer). He attended school at Midhurst Grammar School, in Sussex. He was then admitted into Lincoln College, Oxford, where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1898. Following this, he worked within the Colonial Service. His service began in Nyasaland (what is now Malawi), where he stayed until 1905, then went to British Somaliland. He was appointed commissioner and commander-in-chief of British Somaliland in 1911, serving until 1914, when he became Colonial Secretary in Gibraltar. From 1914 to 1916 he was lieutenant-governor and Colonial Secretary of Malta. In 1916 he became an administrator in British East Africa, later becoming the first governor of the new British mandate of Tanganyika in 1920. He was appointed Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the League of Nations Mandated Territory of Tanganyika from 1920 to 1924. In 1924 he married Olga Margaret Campbell of Argyll, and had three sons with her: Sir Hugh Campbell Byatt (1927–2011), Ronald (Robin) Archer Campbell Byatt (1930–2019), and David Byatt (born 1932). He died on the 8th of April, 1933, in London, aged 58.

Sir Frederick Hankey GCMG (13 March 1774 – 13 March 1855) was a British army officer, diplomat and colonial administrator. Hankey, born in London, married his first cousin, Charlotte Hankey, at Fetcham, Surrey, in July 1796. They had two daughters, Emma (1798-1864) and Frederica (1816-1872). Charlotte Hankey died that same year 1816. Hankey remarried in December 1818 with a woman from Corfu, Mrs Catterina (or Catherine) Valarmo, Vaslamo or Varlamo, with who he had Thomasina-Ionia (1819-1900). Frederick Hankey served in the British Army in Ceylon (1800-1811) as an infantry officer (he attained the rank of colonel in the 15th Regiment of Foot). He then became private secretary of Sir Thomas Maitland. Hankey served in Malta from 1824 to 1837. He achieved great respect for a sensitive diplomatic mission to the Vatican about the legal immunity that the Roman Catholic Church enjoyed on the Island of Malta. In particular Naples' claim that he had the right to nominate any Bishops of Malta. The Vatican would eventually come down on the side of the British, thanks in large part to Hankey's diplomatic intervention with Rome. In 1833 he was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George by William IV. Sir Frederick Hankey died in London in 1855 on his 81st birthday.

Francis Laing was born at Edinburgh on 1 May 1773, son of Alexander, an architect. Laing studied at the University of Edinburgh 1789-90 and 1792-93, and the University of Glasgow in 1794, taking a Physics class under John Anderson. He was Snell Exhibitioner in 1796, and went on to graduate BA from Oxford in 1799 and MA in 1801. He took Holy Orders, becoming Reverend Francis Laing. In 1803 Laing served as Private Secretary to the Governor of Malta, and was shortly afterwards appointed Secretary to the Government of the Island, a post which he held till 1814. Returning to the UK, Laing was Rector of Llanmaes, Glamorgan from 1814 to 1824, and Rector of Humshaugh, Northumberland, from 1820 to 1832. He died at the Mythe, Tewkesbury, on 24 November 1861.

Sir Richard Plasket, early in life, filled an appointment in the Colonial Department. He was subsequently employed as private and public secretary to the government at Ceylon, Malta, and the Cape of Good Hope. He discharged the important duties of his several appointments to the satisfaction of the home government for a period of 26 years, and in consideration of his eminent services he was nominated a Knight of the Order of St. Michael and St. George, on the institution of that order in 1818.

Sir Alexander Wood was the son of the late Alexander Wood, (c.1750s–1807) esq an eminent member of the medical profession in Edinburgh. Sir Alexander Wood went to Ceylon on the civil establishment in 1801 and after filling the offices of member of the Council and sole Commissioner of Revenue, he returned to England in 1811. On Sir Thomas Maitland’s insistence, Wood, who had served under Maitland in Ceylon, was appointed Chief Secretary to the Government of Malta between 1815 and 1817. He was also Chief Secretary to the Government of the Ionian Islands, and up to the period of his demise was Resident Agent in England for the Ionian Islands. He was nominated a Knight Commander of St Michael and St George in 1820, and in the same year dubbed a Knight Bachelor. Sir Alexander Wood married the eldest daughter of Sir William Forbes of Pitsligo Bart, Christian Forbes, in 1807 and died on the 18th of March in 1847 at Holles Street Cavendish square.