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1883–1954Architect
Richard Atkinson Abbott was born on 6 January 1883 in Auckland, the son of Samuel Litton Abbott, a farmer, and his wife, Constantia Sophia Atkinson. His father was English and his mother Irish. After attending St John’s College in 1894–95, Richard was a pupil at King’s College, Remuera, from...
Story: Abbott, Richard Atkinson
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1911–1995Grocer, businessman, athlete, racehorse owner
Erwin Leonard Guy Abel was born on 23 October 1911 at Ohakune, the second of four children of Leonard Guy Abel, a bush contractor and farm worker, and his wife, Rosa Hunt. Known as Wynn, he spent his school years in Waikato and the King Country, apart from a few months on Banks Peninsula....
Story: Abel, Erwin Leonard Guy
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1809?–1877Artist
Caroline Harriet Hudson was born at Wanlip Hall in Leicestershire, England, and baptised at Wanlip on 1 July 1809. She was the daughter of Harriet Pepperell and her husband, Charles Thomas Hudson, who changed his name to Palmer in 1813 by sign-manual. Caroline lived at home with her family;...
Story: Abraham, Caroline Harriet
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1814–1903Clergyman, teacher, bishop
Charles John Abraham is said to have been born on 17 June 1814 at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, England, and was baptised there on 3 July 1814. He was the son of Captain Thomas Abraham and his wife, Louisa Susanna Carter. Abraham's father had served in the Napoleonic wars and then on...
Story: Abraham, Charles John
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1864–1942Community leader, sportswoman
Constance Palgrave Martyn, community and church leader in Palmerston North for many years, was born on 12 May 1864 at Palgrave, Suffolk, England, the daughter of Catherine Elizabeth Harrison and her husband, Charles John Martyn, curate of Palgrave. He later became rector of Long Melford and was...
Story: Abraham, Constance Palgrave
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1887–1948Clerk, land purchase officer, land court judge, writer
Frank Oswald Victor Acheson was born on 27 June 1887 at Riverton, Southland, the youngest of nine children of Robert Acheson, a merchant, and his wife, Annie Sinclair Allan. He was educated at Riverton school and Southland Boys' High School (1901–2). In 1903 he began work as a clerical cadet...
Story: Acheson, Frank Oswald Victor
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1813–1817?–1885Whaler, boatbuilder, trader, farmer, sawmiller
Lewis Acker was born probably in New York, in the United States, some time between 1813 and 1817. His father, variously recorded as a mariner and as the possessor of a substantial estate, allowed him to go to sea in the hope that this would help to settle a lad regarded as rather wild. Acker...
Story: Acker, Lewis
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1904–1981Farmer, politician, wool board chairman
Hugh John Dyke Acland, known as Jack, was born at Christchurch on 17 January 1904, the eldest son of Hugh Thomas Dyke Acland and his wife, Evelyn Mary Ovans. John Barton Arundel Acland, his grandfather, had arrived in Canterbury in 1855, and with Charles Tripp established at Mount Peel the...
Story: Acland, Hugh John Dyke
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1874–1956Surgeon, local politician
Hugh Thomas Dyke Acland was born in Christchurch, New Zealand, on 10 September 1874, the youngest of 11 children of a prominent Canterbury family. His father, John Barton Arundel Acland, with his partner, Charles Tripp, had established Mount Peel station in 1856. His mother, Emily Weddell...
Story: Acland, Hugh Thomas Dyke
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1910–1994Artist, writer, illustrator, conservationist
Thyra Avis Mary McNeill was born on 26 March 1910 in Wellington, the eldest of four children of Jane Louisa Beatrice Thompson and her husband, Alan McKenzie McNeill, a journalist. In 1913 the family moved to Auckland, where Alan became a land agent. They rented homes in Mount Eden, Ponsonby and...
Story: Acres, Thyra Avis Mary
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1842–1919Farmer, forester, churchman, educationalist
Alfred Albert Thomas William Adams (generally known as Thomas William Adams) was born in the village of Gravely, Cambridgeshire, England, on 24 June 1842. He was the son of Mary Giddings and her husband, Charles Adams. In 1843 the family moved to the neighbouring small village of Offord Darcy...
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1872–1936Journalist, poet, playwright, novelist
Arthur Henry Adams was born at Lawrence, Otago, New Zealand, on 6 June 1872, the son of Eleanor (Ellen) Sarah Gillon and her husband, Charles William Adams, a surveyor and a talented astronomer. He attended Otago Boys' High School in Dunedin and the University of Otago, where he graduated BA in...
Story: Adams, Arthur Henry
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1870–1945University lecturer, surveyor, astronomer, seismologist
Charles Edward Adams was born at Lawrence, Otago, New Zealand, on 1 October 1870, the son of Charles William Adams and his wife, Eleanor (Ellen) Sarah Gillon. His father had arrived in New Zealand from Tasmania in 1862 and was a geodesical surveyor in the provincial Survey Department. He was...
Story: Adams, Charles Edward
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1840–1918Surveyor, astronomer, public servant
Charles William Adams was the son of Jane Maiden and her husband, Henry Cay Adams, a farmer and chaplain. He was born at Buckland, Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania), probably on 7 July 1840. He was later to credit much of his professional success to the grounding in mathematics he received at a...
Story: Adams, Charles William
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1892–1976Baker, businessman, philanthropist
Ernest Alfred Adams was born in Wellington, Somerset, England, on 23 November 1892, the son of a master baker, Herbert John Adams, and his wife, Eliza Ann Bell. He was educated at Devon County School and Taunton School, but left in 1909 to work for his father. Soon after, however, Herbert Adams...
Story: Adams, Ernest Alfred
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1838–1918Potter
Luke Adams was born on 21 May 1838 in Fareham, Hampshire, England, the son of William Adams, a brickmaker, and his wife, Jane Barber. After serving an apprenticeship as a potter, Adams married Sarah Jane Churcher at Newchurch, Isle of Wight, on 15 July 1860. They had three sons and a daughter...
Story: Adams, Luke
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1926–2007Botanist, artist, museum curator
Nancy Adams was a botanist, botanical artist and museum curator whose significant contributions to botany included the illustrations for more than 40 publications on New Zealand’s native plants, alpine areas, and common trees, shrubs and flowers, and her 1994 work Seaweeds of New Zealand: an...
Story: Adams, Nancy Mary
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1868–1925Homemaker, diarist
The diaries that Catherine Adamson wrote from 1895 until 1906 stand today as the only known daily record kept by a South Westland founding mother, and are invaluable for the glimpses they give of the daily work and life of the pioneers. Their author was born Catherine Mary Ann Friend in Fitzroy...
Story: Adamson, Catherine Mary Ann
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1865–1936Carrier, coach driver, boarding-house keeper, character
John (Jock) Angus Adamson was born at Queenstown, Lake Wakatipu, New Zealand, on 15 August 1865, the son of Peter Adamson, a baker, and his wife, Jane Grinley. Nothing is known of his early life or education. On 7 June 1888 at Ross he married Mary Dunlop. The couple were to have seven children...
Story: Adamson, John Angus
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1845–1913Soldier, farmer
Thomas Adamson is said to have been born at Whanganui on 9 September 1845, the second son of William Adamson, a carpenter, and Mary Osborne. In his teens he followed the goldrush to Otago, but returned disappointed. A young man of impressive physique, he joined the Auckland Militia in 1865,...
Story: Adamson, Thomas