Some of those present at the inaugural meeting at the Hancock Museum in Newcastle on 8 April 1976 were:-

Professor John E. Cooper - wildlife veterinary pathologist

James Dickinson - Natural History Conservation Officer at North West area Museum Service, Blackburn

Jack Fishwick - Cartwright Hall, Bradford

Derek Foxwell - City Museum, Bristol

Derek Frampton - Natural History Museum

Roy Hale - Chief Taxidermist at Natural History Museum, London

Gerry Heath - Curator at Colchester Natural History Museum

Richard (Dick) Hendry - Kelvingrove Museum, Glasgow

Bari M Logan - Department of Human Morphology, Nottingham University Medical School

John C Metcalf - commercial taxidermist in Leicestershire. John started out at World of Nature, then became a taxidermist at Leicester Museum and was freelance by the time of the inaugural meeting.  He served on early Guild committees and in fact, the Guild's first meeting took place at his house with a representative of DEFRA.

Eric Morton - Taxidermist at Hancock Museum

John Murray - Taxidermist at the Royal Scottish Museum in Edinburgh but left the museum shortly after the inaugural meeting.

Paul Rose - Museums Service North-East

Don Sharp - Wollaton Hall Natural History Museum, Nottingham

Peter Summers - Bolton Museum

Simon Trodd - Conservation Officer at Area Museums Service South East (Peterborough)

Tony Tynan (1930-2018) - Director of the Hancock Museum in Newcastle and as such, Tony was the host of the inaugural meeting and supportive of taxidermy.

Fred Woodward - South Shields Museum, Tyne & Wear