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1816–1896Surveyor, pastoralist, land commissioner, politician, community leader, horticulturist, entrepreneur
Henry Stokes Tiffen was born on 12 July 1816, and was baptised on 28 December 1817 at Hythe, Kent, England. He was the son of William Tiffen, printer, and his wife, Charlotte Stokes. He married Caroline Ellen White in Ore, Sussex, on 23 September 1841.
Trained in surveying in England,...
Story: Tiffen, Henry Stokes
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1850?–1927Ngāi Tahu leader, scholar, politician
Hōne Taare Tīkao told the historian Herries Beattie that he was born on Banks Peninsula in or about 1850, just two years after the Crown purchase of Canterbury from Ngāi Tahu, and within months of the arrival of the first Pākehā settlers in Canterbury. Tīkao claimed descent from 21 Ngāi Tahu...
Story: Tīkao, Hōne Taare
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1913–1982Musterer, military leader, scientific administrator, sales agent
Ronald Arthur Tinker was born at Christchurch on 13 April 1913, the son of Australian-born parents Harry Albert Tinker, a veterinary dentist, and his wife, Millicent Elizabeth Wood. He attended Addington School and Christchurch West District High School, then found office work with the North...
Story: Tinker, Ronald Arthur
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1941–1981Astronomer
Beatrice Hill Tinsley was an English-born, New Zealand-educated, theoretical astrophysicist and cosmologist. Through her research in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s, she proved that the universe was infinite and would expand forever. She also synthesised research by theoretical and...
Story: Tinsley, Beatrice Muriel
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1880–1940Ngāti Kahungunu leader, land rights activist
Te Hata Tīpoki, sometimes known as Te Hata Kōpū, was born in 1880, probably at or near Waihīrere in Wairoa, northern Hawke's Bay. His father was also called Te Hata or Hata Tīpoki and may have been a follower of Te Kooti Arikirangi in the wars of the 1870s. His mother, Hīria Kōpū, was the...
Story: Tīpoki, Te Hata
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?–1881Ngāi Tahu leader, teacher, land protester, assessor
Tiramōrehu was born at Kaiapoi pā, probably early in the nineteenth century, into a high-ranking family of the prominent hapū Ngāi Tūāhuriri of Ngāi Tahu. His father was Kāraki. Tiramōrehu was a descendant of Tūāhuriri through Tūrākautahi, the founder of Kaiapoi pā. Tiramōrehu's mother was...
Story: Tiramōrehu, Matiaha
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1895–1967Ngāi Tahu; farmer, marine engineer, Rātana leader, politician
Edward James Te Āika Tregerthen, later known as Eruera Tīhema Tirikātene, was born on 5 January 1895 at Te Rakiwhakaputa pā near Kaiapoi. His father, a carpenter, later a skipper of boats, wheat farmer and minister of religion, was John Driver Tregerthen. He had been one of the apostles of the...
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1932–2011Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Kahungunu; kaitōrangapū, whetū marama o te ao kākahu, wahine toa
Whetū Tirikātene-Sullivan was New Zealand’s first Māori woman cabinet minister, its longest-serving woman MP, and a staunch advocate in Parliament for Māori interests. An accomplished academic, social worker, designer, sportswoman and dancer, she paved the way for women to combine a political...
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?–1888Ngāti Ruanui leader, military leader, prophet, peacemaker
Tītokowaru was born near Ōkaiawa, in South Taranaki, probably about 1823. He belonged to Ngāti Manuhiakai hapū of Ngā Ruahine, a section of Ngāti Ruanui. He traced his descent from Turi and Rongorongo, and from Manuhiakai. One of his great-grandfathers was Tūnuiāmoa, and he was related to the...
Story: Tītokowaru, Riwha
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1889–1980Librarian, Methodist deaconess, nurse, child welfare officer
Annie Constance Tocker was one of twin daughters born to Annie Smith Baillie and her husband, John Tocker, a blacksmith, in Greytown on 6 May 1889. Little is known of her early life, but she referred in later years to having had ‘a hard childhood myself’, and, on one unguarded occasion, to...
Story: Tocker, Annie Constance
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1868–1942Fellmonger, wool-scourer, motor car importer and assembler, petrol importer and retailer, industrialist, community leader
Charles Todd was born on 28 May 1868 at Peebles, Scotland, the son of Mary Sullivan and her husband, Charles Todd, a mill foreman. In the early 1870s the family emigrated to New Zealand, where Charles senior managed a fellmongery and later various mining companies in Otago. Young Charles...
Story: Todd, Charles
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1898–1968Child psychiatrist
Kathleen Todd believed passionately that the important role of any doctor is ‘sometimes to cure, often to relieve, but always to console’. This dictum came to have a very personal resonance for this gifted, warm and empathetic psychiatrist.
Born on 19 November 1898 in Heriot, Otago,...
Story: Todd, Kathleen Mary Gertrude
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?–1864Ngāti Whakaue leader, assessor
Tohi Te Ururangi was a renowned warrior and leader of Ngāti Whakaue section of Te Arawa. He was born probably in the early nineteenth century. Through his father, Te Piere II, he was descended from Whakaue, through Tūteaiti. His mother, Hinepapa, had connections with Ngāti Pikiao and other...
Story: Tohi Te Ururangi
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1828–1907Te Āti Awa and Taranaki prophet
Tohu Kākahi, whose historical importance has often been ignored, was responsible along with Te Whiti-o-Rongomai III for making the village of Parihaka in Taranaki a symbol of pacifist protest against government land acquisitions. He was a descendant of Ngā Pōtikitaua and Te Āti Awa chief Te...
Story: Tohu Kākahi
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1858–1860?–1933Ngāpuhi leader, prophet, religious leader, protester
Hōne Riiwi Tōia was born probably sometime between 1858 and 1860 at Waimate North in the Bay of Islands. His grandfather was a Jewish trader called Levy (Riiwi), who, in different family traditions, jumped ship at Hokianga or was a certificated master mariner trading in his own ship to Hokianga...
Story: Tōia, Hōne Riiwi
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1897–1988Labourer, political activist
Ivan Tomasevic was born on 10 March 1897 in Kosarnido, Croatia, then part of Austria–Hungary. He was the son of Antun Tomasevic, a farm labourer, and his wife, Ane Trobok. His early life is obscure, but he qualified as a nautical cadet in 1916 and joined the Serbian army in November 1918; he...
Story: Tomasevic, Ivan
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1874–1966Printer, publisher, musician, artist, patron of the arts
Harry Hugo Tombs was born in Christchurch on 11 June 1874, the son of Rosa Ann Hedgman and her husband, George Tombs, a printer. He attended the Christchurch Normal School and Christchurch West School and then Christ's College in 1889 and 1890. An apprenticeship as a printer in his father's...
Story: Tombs, Harry Hugo
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?–1904Ngāti Kahungunu and Ngāti Te Whatu-i-āpiti leader, military leader, newspaper publisher, politician
Tomoana was born in the 1820s or early 1830s, probably in Heretaunga, Hawke's Bay. He was the third son of Te Rotohenga, also called Winipere, from whom he derived his high rank. Her father was Hāwea of Ngāti Te Whatu-i-āpiti, heir to mana over Heretaunga, and eponymous ancestor of Ngāti Hāwea...
Story: Tomoana, Hēnare
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1874/1875?–1946Ngāti Te Whatu-i-āpiti and Ngāti Kahungunu leader, sportsman, composer, newspaper publisher
Paraire Hēnare Tomoana, known familiarly as Friday, was born probably in 1874 or 1875 at either Pākōwhai or Waipatu in Hawke's Bay. He was the eldest of the surviving children – 13 in all – of Hēnare Tomoana and his third wife, Ākenehi Pātoka. His father was from one of the most illustrious...
Story: Tomoana, Paraire Hēnare
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1893–1984Nurse, prisoner of war
Lilian Gladys Tompkins was born at Halcombe, northern Manawatu, on 10 March 1893, the daughter of Lilian Jane Crabb and her husband, Arthur Henry Tompkins, a storekeeper. Gladys went to a private school in Auckland. After completing her training as a nurse in New Plymouth Hospital in 1927, she...
Story: Tompkins, Lilian Gladys