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Filter biographies using dates, occupations and places related to people's lives.
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1871–1955Engineering teacher and consultant, local politician
Samuel Irwin Crookes was born in Sheffield, Yorkshire, England, in 1871, the son of Henry Crookes, a grinder, and his wife, Margaret Irwin. He attended school and university in that city, where he studied chemistry and electrical engineering. On 24 December 1896 in Sheffield he married May...
Story: Crookes, Samuel Irwin
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1878–1952Draper, trade unionist
Alexander Wellington Croskery was born in Swansea, Wales, on 19 December 1878, the son of Mary Ann Mortimer Thomson and her Irish-born husband, Alexander Brown Croskery, a provision merchant and later an accountant. He arrived in New Zealand with his parents in 1880, and attended Queen's...
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1912–1989Basketball player, sports administrator and broadcaster
Lance Cross was born in Dunedin on 12 November 1912 to Elizabeth Stewart and her husband, Cecil Thomas Cross, a fireman. Named John (and then, 12 days later, Cecil) Lancelot Stewart Cross, he was educated at Douglas School near Waimate and then Timaru Boys’ High School from 1925 to 1930. Cross...
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1925–2019Novelist, editor, journalist, administrator
Ian Cross was a distinguished novelist, journalist, editor, broadcaster and administrator, best-known as the author of The God boy (1957), one of the finest and most enduringly popular New Zealand novels of the twentieth century. It was published in the same year as debut novels by Janet Frame...
Story: Cross, Ian Robert
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1858–1948Farmer, community leader
The birth of Thomas Ezekiel Crosse on 1 June 1855 was not without drama. His parents, Charles Grant Crosse and his wife, Elizabeth Thorby, farmed land they had leased at Mangamaire, seven miles south-west of Pōrangahau in southern Hawke's Bay, New Zealand. The journey from Napier was arduous,...
Story: Crosse, Latima George
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1845–1847?–1930Homemaker, community leader
Ellen Silke was born in Ballandooley, County Galway, Ireland, probably some time between 1845 and 1847. She was the daughter of Bridget Cody and her husband, John Silke, who were smallholders. When Ellen Silke was about 12 or 13 years old an event occurred which was to alter the course of her...
Story: Crowe, Ellen
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1873–1918Doctor
Margaret Barnet (Barnett) Cruickshank was born on 1 January 1873, the eldest, with her twin sister, of seven children of George Cruickshank, a contractor and farmer, and his wife, Margaret Taggart. During this period the family were living in Hawksbury (later Waikouaiti), Otago, though the...
Story: Cruickshank, Margaret Barnet
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1935–1996Farmhand, bush worker, deer culler, writer, characterWork and relationships
Barry Crump was one of New Zealand’s most popular writers. In total, his novels sold more than a million copies domestically, equating to one book sold for every four New Zealanders. He was also a high-profile media personality who worked in radio and television, and...
Story: Crump, Barry
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1848–1929Farmer, community worker, benefactor
Sarah Cryer was born on 14 February 1848 at Wroughton, Wiltshire, England, the youngest of eight children of Hannah Matthews and her husband, Moses Cryer, a butcher. In November 1848 the family embarked on the New Zealand Company ship Mary at London and arrived in Nelson on 24 February 1849....
Story: Cryer, Sarah
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1823–1889Farmwife, midwife, shopkeeper
Mary Parkinson was born probably in 1823. She was the eldest of five children of Richard Parkinson, a hand-loom weaver, and his wife, Jane Girvan, of Maybole, Ayrshire. On 20 December 1844 she was married at Maybole to Thomas Cuddie, a cotton weaver.
Mary and Thomas Cuddie had 11...
Story: Cuddie, Mary
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1850?–1939Police officer and commissioner
John Cullen was born in Glenfarne, County Leitrim, Ireland, and baptised there on 28 March 1850. He was the son of Mary McNulty and her husband, Patrick Cullen, a farmer. Details of Cullen's life are unknown until he joined the Royal Irish Constabulary in 1869. He married Rachel McGinley on 6...
Story: Cullen, John
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1913–2011Geographer, broadcaster, local body politician, farmer
Yorkshireman Kenneth Cumberland was the first qualified geographer to teach the subject at university level in New Zealand. He joined the new Department of Geography at Canterbury University College in 1938, and soon established himself as a prolific author. He later set up a geography...
Story: Cumberland, Kenneth Brailey
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1861–1941Salvation Army officer, chaplain, social worker, probation officer
Francis George Cumming was born at Marnoch, Banffshire, Scotland, on 18 November 1861 to Catharine Horne and her husband, William Cumming, a farm servant. When in their teens he and his brother Robert ran away to sea where Francis worked for eight years. In 1884 he became a Salvation Army...
Story: Cumming, Francis George
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1878–1956Policeman, police commissioner
James and Denis Joseph Cummings, together with their sister Catherine and brother Timothy, were members of the New Zealand Police Force during the first half of the twentieth century. They were four of the twelve children of Mary Crowley and her husband, Patrick Cummings, a miner then farmer...
Story: Cummings, Denis Joseph
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1857–1862?–1952Te Roroa leader, kauri-gum dealer, storekeeper, land rights activist
Piipi Raumati Tiopira, also called Phoebe, was born at Waihou, Hokianga, probably sometime between 1857 and 1862, the youngest of five children of Te Roroa leader Tiopira Kīnaki (also known as Tiopira Te Rurunga, Tiopira Rēhi and Tiopira Tāoho) and his wife, Mārara Māhuhu. Her hapū were Ngāti...
Story: Cummins, Piipi Raumati
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1892–1962Horticulturist, plant pathologist, mycologist
Gordon Herriot Cunningham was born at Heriot, West Otago, on 27 August 1892, one of seven children of Helen Donaldson Herriot and her husband, Joseph Watson Cunningham, manager of a sheep station at nearby Moa Flat. He was educated at Dunrobin and then at Tapanui District High School. At 14 he...
Story: Cunningham, Gordon Herriot
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1905–1971Veterinary scientist, scientific administrator, university professor
Ira James Cunningham was born at Mangatainoka, Wairarapa, on 16 August 1905, the son of James Cunningham, a sawmiller, and his wife, Marie Kristine Johansen. James Cunningham died in a sawmill accident when Ira was only nine, leaving his mother to care for him and his five sisters. He was sent...
Story: Cunningham, Ira James
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1849–1916Social reformer, feminist, lecturer, writer
Eveline Willett Leach was born on 23 April 1849 at Briton Ferry, Glamorgan, Wales, the youngest of 12 daughters of Ann Willett and her husband, Robert Valentine Leach, proprietor of a lunatic asylum. Eveline's father was wealthy and she grew up at Devizes Castle, Wiltshire, England. She became...
Story: Cunnington, Eveline Willett
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1911–2001Journalist, poet, writer, university professorEarly life
Thomas Allen Monro Curnow (known as Allen) was born in Timaru on 17 June 1911, the second of three sons of Tremayne Monro Curnow, an Anglican clergyman, and his wife, Jessamine Towler Gambling.
On his father’s side, Allen Curnow was a fourth-generation New Zealander, the...
Story: Curnow, Thomas Allen Monro
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1896–1984Agricultural scientist, university professor and administrator
George Alexander Currie was born at Windyhills farm in the parish of Grange, Banffshire, Scotland, on 13 August 1896, the second son of Mary Craib and her husband, George Currie, a village blacksmith and later tenant farmer. He was born into a Free Church of Scotland family and in adult life...
Story: Currie, George Alexander