The Advocate General of Bengal and a barrister of renown, John Edwardes Lyall made significant contributions to the practice and teaching of law in Bengal, especially in Presidency College. The eldest son of George Lyall, Member of Parliament of London (his younger brother George Lyall Jr was M.P. of Whitehaven), he was educated at Eton. Originally aiming for the civil service of the East India Company, he left Eton for Haileybury, where he achieved great success, and obtained many prizes for his proficiency in Oriental languages. However, eventually giving up on the idea of moving to India as a writer, he entered Balliol college, Oxford. On leaving Oxford, he hoped to carve out a career in law, and became a member of the Inner Temple, by which inn of court he was called to the bar in 1837. After practicing for some years on the Home circuit, in the spring of 1842 he was appointed Advocate General of Bengal by the Directors of the East India Company, and set sail for India in May 1842. There he was popular for his efforts on behalf of the local population, especially on educational matters. He voluntarily offered to deliver lectures on law at Hindoo College. The course of lectures began on the 12th October 1843. Opening with a general introductory lecture, "which was attended by His Honour the Deputy Governor of Bengal, the Council of Education, Sir Henry Seton (one of the Judges of the Supreme Court) and a large number of the Civil and other Services,”, the course was afterwards continued once a week, and was "attended by the pupils of the Senior Classes of the Hindu and Hooghly Colleges, as well as by some of the Students of the College of Fort William." The first course of lectures was delivered between October 1843 and February 1844. The second course lasted from May to October 1844. This series may have lasted longer if not for Lyall’s untimely death. His death of spasmodic cholera on the 9th March of 1845, at the Government House in Barrackpore, while visiting Sir Henry Hardinge, was greatly mourned, and is recorded in the Bengal Hurkaru and the Calcutta Star, as well as the 24th volume of the Gentleman’s Magazine.

This plaque, the second oldest in the current Arts Library, was erected entirely at the appeal and initiative of the students of the College. Gokulnath Dhar, once the librarian in this College, notes that there were twenty seven signatories for the cause, and among them were Rajnarayan Bose, Gireesh Chunder Ghose and Prasanna Kumar Sarvadhikary.

This plaque is placed against the first pillar that one encounters upon entering the Arts Library.

The inscription on the plaque reads as follows:

A brilliant professor and scholar of Mathematics, Hugh William McCann left his mark both in his homeland and at Presidency College during his regrettably short life. Born in Kirkudbright, Scotland in 1853 (baptised on 7th February) to Hugh Gregory McCann of Kilmarnck, Ayrshire, McCann was educated at Causiu’s Institution, near Edinburgh, and then under Reverend John Septon, late Fellow of St. John’s College. In 1867, he was placed first in the list of junior candidates in the Oxford Middle-Class Examinations, and in the next year he came first in the senior category of the same examinations. He obtained the Gold Medal in Higher Mathematics and the Bronze Medal in Mechanics at the Government Science Examinations, and the next year earned the Whitworth Scholarship. In June 1870, he matriculated at the London University, stood first in Honours and was awarded the first Exhibition. He won a scholarship for Mathematics at the Trinity College. In the following June he gained the London University Exhibition in Mathematics and Mechanical Philosophy at the First Examinations for Bachelor of Science, and in October, 1871, commenced his course at the Trinity College. Records reveal that since 1871, McCann suffered from frequent bouts of ill health, which constantly interfered with his education, and forced him to leave Cambridge frequently. In October, 1873, he was forced to leave Cambridge for a year, returning in late 1874. Finally, in 1876, He completed his education for the mathematical Tripos in Cambridge with Honours.

After completing his education (M.A. from Cambridge, D.Sc.), McCann traveled to India and joined Presidency College in 1879 as a lecturer of Mathematics. He was well-loved by his students and colleagues during his brief career. McCann was among the Professors and Principals who took an interest in the cause and welfare of the Presidency College Union as the students attempted to revive it around 1882. He presided over an Annual Meeting on the issue in the beginning of 1883, where students presented debates on various subjects.

After completing his education (M.A. from Cambridge, D.Sc.), McCann traveled to India and joined Presidency College in 1879 as a lecturer of Mathematics. He was well-loved by his students and colleagues during his brief career. McCann was among the Professors and Principals who took an interest in the cause and welfare of the Presidency College Union as the students attempted to revive it around 1882. He presided over an Annual Meeting on the issue in the beginning of 1883, where students presented debates on various subjects.

In 1883, McCann was appointed to conduct the Premchand Roychand Studentship Examination of the Calcutta University in Mixed Mathematics (a rare accomplishment given his young age). A year later he was a Fellow of the Calcutta University and attached to the Faculty of Arts and Engineering. Sir Abdur Rahim remembers Professor McCann as talking "the broadest Scotch I ever heard in this country," and that "Notes of his lectures were much sought after for purposes of Examination." Sir Asutosh Mukherji spoke of him as a man of “unquestioned intellectual calibre.”

McCann passed away on June 21, 1884; he was suffering from cholera. He was buried at Ranigunge on the 22nd of June. A special meeting of the Union chaired by Mr. C.H. Tawney, then Principal of the College, was held on 1st July, 1884 to condole his death. Following this, a subscription list was opened to collect fund for raising a suitable memorial and in the beginning of 1885, Ashutosh Mukhopadhyay, secretary of the Union, was able to forward to the institution a portion of the amount raised for McCann Silver Medal, which has since then (for some time) been presented to the student obtaining the highest marks for B.A Honours in Mathematics. With the rest of the money, this tablet was raised in the Library.

This white marble plaque, made by Dowling, is located in the Faculty Room in the Arts Library. The inscription on it reads:

A brilliant student in his youth, Ramchandra Mitra was a student of Hindu College, and grew to be a teacher at the same institution. Gokul Nath Dhar, librarian at Presidency College, notes that Mitra appears to have entered service on the first of March, 1830, as a teacher in the Junior Department of the Hindu College. Dhar adds, “By sheer dint of perseverance and selfless devotion to his task he rose gradually into prominence. The Professors of the College Department who conducted the examinations of the junior boys expressed their unstinted admiration of the classes put under his care, and were invariably of opinion that they ''reflected the highest credit on their teacher"—Babu Ram Chunder Mitter. He appears to have become the Second Master of the Junior Department in 1841, when he drew a salary of Rs. 175 a month. The task of teaching the “class in Geography, Dictation, Translation and Writing" was entrusted to him. On the 21st of July 1848 he was promoted to the grade of Rs. 200 and appointed "Teacher of Translation" in the Senior School. "As an experimental measure, the Vernacular Classes of the College Department were entrusted to his charge" in 1854.”

He was later appointed Examiner in Bengali by the Calcutta University in 1858, and elected a Fellow of the University and a Member of the Faculty of Arts on 15th April 1864. He was a well-known member of the Bethune Society, and for some time its chairperson. Mitra was the author of several texts, a few being Manoram Pathya, Pathamrita and Ingrejir Prathamik Grammar. Also an enthusiast in ornithology, he wrote a book by the name of Pakkhir Biboron (Descriptions of Birds). He was the first to produce the map of Europe in Bengali script. His other accomplishments include the direction and publication of the monthly periodicals, Pashyabali and Gyanoday.

Mitra passed away at the age of 60. In his address at the Convocation on the 21st March 1874, the Vice-Chancellor, Sir Edward Clive Bayley, observed: "Ram Chunder Mitter, too, has passed away; he deserves a tribute of respect as a veteran champion of education, whose services were rendered at a time when there were few to fight, and when the struggle was hard to maintain, and because his personal high character lent force to his exertions."

This marble bust was created by Brown & Co., S.C.T.S. through the initiative of the members of the Bethune Society, and was presented to the College. Present at the geographical centre of the Arts Library, it is located adjacent to the staircase leading to the mezzanine floor (near the section of the library housing books on English literature, philosophy etc.), below the plaque commemorating the contributors towards the founding of the College.

The inscription below the bust reads as follows:

Benoyendranath Sen was a much-loved professor at Presidency College, one who was highly concerned about the welfare of the institution as well as society as a whole. Born on 25th September, 1868 to Babu Madhusudan Sen (associated with Gurudas Banerjee and Devendranath Tagore) and Mangala Devi (cousin of Brahmananda Keshabchandra Sen), Sen spent his childhood in Sankhibhanga, a lane behind the Calcutta University building. He was educated at Albert School, where he became the secretary of a students’ club named “The Friends’ Athenaeum” – an early space of discussions in English and for Sen’s growing oratory skills. He studied in the Albert College and passed the F.A. Examination in the First Division, and then studied for the B.A. in the General Assembly’s Institution (now Scottish Church College). He completed his B.A. degree with Honours in English and Philosphy, both first class (1888). After completing his graduation, he taught for a few months in the Normal Girls’ School (he was recommended for this post by the Principal Rev. W. Smith). Then in 1889, he completed his M.A. in History, and subsequently, in Philosophy in 1890, from Calcutta University. He was appointed to the post of principal at Baharampur Collegiate School after passing M.A. in History. Before being employed at Presidency College, Sen taught at Tej Narayan Jubilee College, Bhagalpur for two years. He was recommended for the position of professor at History at Presidency College by Sir Alfred Croft, and joined in that capacity in 1893, to be associated with the institution for the rest of his life, with only a short interruption during his officiation in the post of Inspector of Colleges.

His interactions with his students were admirable; an old pupil reminisces: “In his class lectures, he always tried to rise superior to the mere teaching of the text-books and affect us more vitally in our real life. Studying History with him became the most liberalising and the humanising of all culture … He was not a mere historian, but the truest and the best student of History … Looking upon History from this high eminence, as he did, there was no room for narrowness or sectarianism in his instructions.” He was “deeply respected for his scholarship, character and personality, he exercised a distinct moral influence on the student community of his time.” His student recalls Sen’s influence not only in class but also beyond – “in the Debating Societies, in his Geeta Classes, in the steamer excursions and in the Social gatherings which he so often organized with such enthusiasm.” He is said to have entertained students with ‘magic-box pictures which he kindly brought from the College Laboratory’, and joined them in their frolics with equal enthusiasm.

He was closely associated with the Calcutta University and engaged in the welfare of the student community, first in the capacity of Deputy Secretary, and then the Secretary of Calcutta University Institute.

Sen was closely associated with the Brahmo Samaj. A follower of Keshabchandra Sen, he was deeply involved in the activities of the association. He established and organised a Prarthana Sabha (Prayer Meeting) with inspiration from Keshab Chandra. He is well known for his social work. He opened a boarding house named ‘Fraternal Home’ on Harrison Road in 1897, and extended aid from Fraternity Home during the plague outbreak in Calcutta in 1898. He was also, for some time, Chairman of ‘Young Men and Interpretation’ and ‘Theistic Endeavour Society’. In 1905, he traveled to Europe and America as representative of the Brahmo Samaj to the International Religious Conference held at Geneva as one of the “Peace-makers’ between the East and the West. Sen also has many texts to his name – some of them being The Pilgrim, Lectures and Essays, The Intellectual Ideal, Aarati, and Geeta Adhyayan.

He died in harness after a protracted illness on April 12th, 1913. His death was deeply mourned by his students and colleagues. A memorial meeting was held in the Calcutta University Institute Hall on the second anniversary of his death, with Satyendranath Tagore as the chair.

This plaque, by Llewelyn & co., SCTS., was unveiled in 1915, and in the earlier days, was accompanied by a portrait of Sen which was placed before it. Although, unfortunately, the portrait has been removed from its place along with many others that once adorned the old library, the plaque rests near the ground floor reading table, beside the wood panel of the Faculty room, in the Arts Library. The inscription on the plaque reads: