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1890–1973Senior public servant, diplomat
Carl August Berendsen was born at Woollahra, New South Wales, on 16 August 1890, the only child of Jurgen Ferdinand Plenge Berendsen, a Swedish immigrant then working as a bank clerk, and his Australian wife, Fannie Asher, the daughter of a Jewish businessman who had been a storekeeper and...
Story: Berendsen, Carl August
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1868–1934Stonemason, sculptor, commercial traveller
Carlo Giuseppe Bergamini was born at Carrara, Italy, on 19 January 1868, the son of Oreste Bergamini and his wife, Marie de Raimondo Castelpoggi. Carrara was the centre of the Italian marble industry and the family were stonemasons and sculptors. As a young man Carlo arrived in Australia and...
Story: Bergamini, Carlo Giuseppe
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1906–1979Commercial artist, stamp, coin and medal designer, landscape painter
Reginald George James Berry (known as James) was born on 20 June 1906 in London, England, the second child of James Willie Berry, a clerk, and his wife, Amy Blanche Clarissa Wakefield. After the death of his father in 1911, James was sent to board at Russell Hill School from 1913 until 1922. He...
Story: Berry, Reginald George James
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1834/1835?–1903Journalist, newspaper editor
William Berry was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, probably in 1834 or 1835, the son of Margaret Garden and her husband, William Berry, a dyer. Around the age of 12 he was apprenticed in the composing room of the Scotsman newspaper in Edinburgh. He gained valuable experience in many aspects of...
Story: Berry, William
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1910–1993Journalist, writer, relief worker, prisoner of war, university professor, editor
James Munro Bertram was born on 11 August 1910 at Auckland, the son of Ivo Edgar Bertram, a Presbyterian minister, and his wife, Evelyn Susan Bruce. At the start of the First World War the family moved to Melbourne and then to Sydney. For 10 years Jim attended church schools, absorbed his...
Story: Bertram, James Munro
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1856–1931Farm worker, soldier, sawmiller, health inspector, ethnographer, writer
Elsdon Best was born at Tawa Flat, New Zealand, on 30 June 1856, the sixth child of William Best, a farmer, and his wife, Hannah Haynes Nibbs. For the first nine years of his life he lived on the family farm, Grassleas, with his four sisters and two brothers. When his father took a position as...
Story: Best, Elsdon
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1895–1959Architect, draper, museum director, benefactor
Leonard Delabere Bestall was born in Wellington on 21 November 1895, the son of Richard Bestall and his wife, Eleanor Beatrice Pidgeon. Afterwards the family moved to Napier, where Richard, a draper, established the firm Bestall and Griffin (later known as Bestalls). Leonard, usually called Leo...
Story: Bestall, Leonard Delabere
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1876–1955Local politician, community leader
Marmaduke Bethell was born at Maitai Valley, Nelson, on 18 November 1876, the only son of Isabella Anne Lillie and her husband, Richard Bethell, a lawyer and sheepfarmer of Burnham, Canterbury. In 1877 Richard Bethell purchased 5,673 acres of land near Culverden in the Āmuri county, North...
Story: Bethell, Marmaduke
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1874–1945Social worker, poet
Mary Ursula Bethell was born at Horsell, Surrey, England, on 6 October 1874, the first of three children of Isabella Anne Lillie and her husband, Richard Bethell, a barrister. Both parents had lived in New Zealand in the 1860s, and soon after Ursula's birth they returned to the southern...
Story: Bethell, Mary Ursula
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1885–1964Nurse, community leader
The Bettjemans were among the first settlers to take up land at the ill-fated soldiers' settlement in the Mangapurua valley in the Wanganui River hinterland. They were also among the last to leave.
Frederick Charles Bettjemann was born near Westport on 19 January 1884, the son of Johann...
Story: Bettjeman, Agnes Muir
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1822–1907Watchmaker, mathematician, astronomer
Arthur Beverly was born on 22 March 1822 at Alford, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. His father was George Beverly, a farmer; his mother's identity is unknown. Arthur Beverly was educated at home. Occasionally he attended a parish school, and evening classes conducted by James Taylor, a shoemaker, from...
Story: Beverly, Arthur
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1856–1945School principal, educationalist
Mary Ellen Bews achieved renown for her role as co-founder and principal of Mount Eden College, a private secondary school for girls which flourished in Auckland at the beginning of the twentieth century. She was born in Glasgow, Scotland, on 20 August 1856, the daughter of Ann Anderson and...
Story: Bews, Mary Ellen
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1832?–1910Storekeeper, homemaker
Mary Ann Woodhouse was born in Heaton, Lancashire, England, the daughter of Ann Woodhouse and her husband, Thomas Woodhouse, a fisherman who was later a miller. She was baptised at Overton on 10 June 1832. Little is known of Mary's early life. Fair-haired and blue-eyed, she was small of stature...
Story: Bibby, Mary Ann
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1842–1929Scientist, university professor, eccentric
Alexander William Bickerton was born at Alton, Hampshire, England, on 7 January 1842, the second son of Sophia Matilda Eames and her husband, Richard Bickerton, a builder's clerk and draughtsman. He was baptised in the Anglican church, of which he remained an unorthodox member throughout his...
Story: Bickerton, Alexander William
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1871–1956Nurse, military matron, health administrator
Jessie Bicknell, who helped establish postgraduate and specialist training for nurses, was born in Oamaru, New Zealand, on 27 March 1871. She was one of eleven children of Elizabeth Armstrong and her husband, Frederick Bicknell, a postmaster. Educated at schools in Oamaru and Melbourne, Jessie...
Story: Bicknell, Jessie
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1899–1955Ngāti Ranginui and Ngāi Te Rangi; policeman
Louis Hekenui Bidois, commonly known as Heke, was born at Te Puna, near Tauranga in the Bay of Plenty, on 28 March 1899, the son of Charles (Haare) Bidois, a farmer, and his wife, Pauline (Pōrina) Faulkner. Heke was a grandson of two early Tauranga traders, Frenchman Louis Bidois and Englishman...
Story: Bidois, Louis Hekenui
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1921–2000Ngāti Maniapoto; ethnographer, linguist, champion of te reo Māori
Bruce Biggs had a distinguished career as a scholar but he was also that rarer thing, an exceptional builder of academic institutions. In academic Māori studies he was the most influential figure of the twentieth century. At the University of Auckland he developed the first university...
Story: Biggs, Bruce Grandison
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1831–1868Station manager, soldier, magistrate
Reginald Newton Biggs was born in England on 16 June 1831, the son of Mary Margaret Bree and her husband, Reverend George Biggs. He is first recorded in New Zealand as a freehold settler in the Wanganui area in 1855. By 1857 he was living at Kōreromaiwaho, in the Turakina district, and...
Story: Biggs, Reginald Newton
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1885–1957Architect, soldier
Roy Keith Binney was born at Auckland on 13 April 1885, the 10th and youngest child of George William Binney and his wife, Mary Mather. The Binney family was of some standing in Auckland where the auctioneering firm of G. W. Binney and Sons dealt in wool, hides and kauri gum. Roy attended King'...
Story: Binney, Roy Keith
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1815–1847Chartist leader, poet
George Binns was born in Sunderland, Durham, England, on 6 December 1815, one of 16 children of George Binns and his wife, Margaret Watson. George Binns senior, a member of the Society of Friends, was a well-to-do draper and George Binns junior worked in the family business until about 1837,...
Story: Binns, George