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Filter biographies using dates, occupations and places related to people's lives.
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1916–2001Broadcaster, quizmaster
Selwyn Toogood was New Zealand’s best-known broadcaster from the 1950s to the 1970s, as quizmaster of the enormously popular It’s in the bag radio programme. Audiences revelled in the suspense as he invited contestants to choose between a guaranteed cash prize and a bag containing a mystery...
Story: Toogood, Selwyn Featherston
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1898–1964Te Whakatōhea and Te Rarawa; community leader, teacher, musician, carver
Mereana Tōpia, better known as Maria, and her daughter Hēni Hoana or Jane Tōpia, were outstanding leaders in their local communities. Among their many activities they fostered the practice of traditional Māori arts and crafts.
Maria was born, according to family information, on 20 August...
Story: Tōpia, Hēni Hoana
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1835/1836?–1922Homemaker, community leader
Elizabeth Henrietta Revell was born probably in 1835 or 1836, in County Wicklow, Ireland, third daughter of Thomas Revell, farmer, and his wife, Margaret Elizabeth Bradell. Elizabeth and her mother, five brothers and four sisters, as second cabin passengers on the Minerva, arrived in Lyttelton...
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1882–1957Gum-digger, boarding-house keeper, community leader, consul
Ivan Marko Totić (known in New Zealand as John Mark Totich) was born to Marko Totić, a farmer, and his wife, Marija Violić, in the village of Kuna, Pelješac peninsula, Dalmatia, a province of Austria, on 18 May 1882. He was educated at the village primary school and then received private...
Story: Totich, John Mark
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1901–1974Artist, art teacher and administrator, educationalist, writer
Arthur Gordon Tovey, the eldest of three sons, was born in Wellington on 23 January 1901 to Arthur Oliver Tovey, a telegraphist, and his wife, Catherine Jane Youmans. His early years were spent in Wellington and Napier. By 1917 his father was postmaster in Palmerston North, where Gordon (as he...
Story: Tovey, Arthur Gordon
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1831–1891Architect
Christian Julius Toxværd (Toxward) was born on 26 November 1831 in Copenhagen, Denmark, the son of Christian Henrich Toxværd, chair-maker, and his wife, Ane Margrethe Schmidt. Between 1841 and 1851 he studied at the Kunstakademiet (Academy of Fine Arts) apparently without passing any final...
Story: Toxward, Christian Julius
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1892–1959Journalist, poet, short-story writer, novelist, community worker
Mona Tracy was one of three Canterbury writers whose children's books, written in the 1920s, have stood the test of time. Unlike her two contemporaries, Esther Glen and Edith Howes, however, she wrote historical novels.
She was born Mona Innis Mackay on 24 January 1892 at Kensington,...
Story: Tracy, Mona Innis
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1892–1989Labourer, fisherman, wildlife ranger, bushman
Robert Henry Traill, known as Roy, was born at Ringaringa, Stewart Island, on 1 December 1892. The son of Arthur William Traill, a farmer and schoolteacher, and his wife, Gretchen Wohlers, he was delivered by the well-known local midwife, Granny Harrold. Arthur Traill had come to New Zealand...
Story: Traill, Robert Henry
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1904–1979Army and civilian nurse, hospital matron, nurses’ association leader
Winnifred Sarah Train was born at Waitotara on 14 February 1904, the daughter of Hilda Mary Parsons and her husband, Frederick Train, a storekeeper and farmer. She attended Wanganui Girls’ College, and in 1932 commenced nursing training at Palmerston North Hospital. She graduated in December...
Story: Train, Winnifred Sarah
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1819–1903Lawyer, magistrate, politician, explorer, naturalist, photographer
William Thomas Locke Travers, son of Boyle Travers, a captain in the 95th Regiment of Foot, later Rifle Brigade, and his wife, Caroline Brockman, is said to have been born either on 9 or 19 January 1819 at Castleview, near Newcastle, County Limerick, Ireland. Mainly brought up in France where...
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1884–1918Horse-breaker, soldier
Dickson Cornelius Savage was born at Opotiki, New Zealand, on 6 April 1884, the fifth child in a family of nine. His parents, James Savage from Ireland, a farmer and constable in the New Zealand Armed Constabulary, and Frances Theresa O'Keefe, from Sydney, Australia, married at Opotiki in 1875...
Story: Travis, Richard Charles
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1846–1931Soldier, surveyor, linguist, Polynesian scholar, writer, public servant, political reformer
Edward Robert Tregear, son of William James Tregear and his wife, Mary Norris, was born in Southampton, Hampshire, England, on 1 May 1846. He led a comfortable life there with his mother and younger sisters, Mary and Ellen. His father was a captain with the Peninsular and Oriental Line and was...
Story: Tregear, Edward Robert
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1915–1986Military aviator and leader, prisoner of war
Leonard Henry (registered as Henry Leonard) Trent was born in Nelson on 14 April 1915, the son of Leonard Noel Trent, a dentist, and his wife, Irene Violet Everett. In 1919 the family moved to Takaka, where, three years later, after taking a short ride in a Gipsy Moth aircraft, young Leonard...
Story: Trent, Leonard Henry
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1883–1942Cook, tearooms manager, community worker
Mildred Annie Trent was one of twin daughters born to Frederick Trent and his wife, Mary Sowersby, at Christchurch on 8 July 1883; there were four other children in the family. Frederick Trent was a partner in, and later proprietor of, Trent Brothers, which made a coffee drink from chicory....
Story: Trent, Mildred Annie
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1892–1956Wood carver, monumental mason, sculptor
William Thomas Trethewey was born in Christchurch on 8 September 1892, the son of Cornish parents Mary Wallace and her husband, Jabez Trethewey, a carpenter. He left East Christchurch School at the age of 13 and began work as a wood carver of such objects as finials, fireplaces and bedheads. He...
Story: Trethewey, William Thomas
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1823?–1907Farmer, soldier, victim of injustice
Walter Pettit Tricker was born in Stowupland, Suffolk, England, and baptised there on 18 August 1823. He was the son of Mary Edward and her husband, Walter Pettit Tricker, a husbandman. Nothing is known of his early life but he can have received little schooling for he never learnt to read or...
Story: Tricker, Walter Pettit
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1870–1939Artist, art teacher
Mary Elizabeth Richardson was one of several successful artists to emerge during the 1890s, a period of creativity in New Zealand art. As M. E. R. Tripe she became a portrait painter of national importance, as well as a teacher and formidable influence on Wellington art for over 30 years.
...Story: Tripe, Mary Elizabeth
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1863–1941Draughtsman, architect, community worker, mayor
George Alexander Troup was born on 25 October 1863 in London, England, the son of Scottish parents Jane Gildawie and her husband, George Troup, a provision warehouseman and cabinet-maker. The fifth of nine children and the eldest son, he grew up in Edinburgh, where he attended church and...
Story: Troup, George Alexander
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1874–1948Mariner, Salvation Army officer
Kazuyuki Kiyohei Tsukigawa was born on 9 January 1874 on the island of Konoura-mura Uku in the Nagasaki prefecture of Japan, the son of Kazuye Tsukigawa and his wife, Fuzi Kanki. At 15 or 16 he began to work for his uncle as an apprentice seaman. He decided to become a ship's pilot, and in...
Story: Tsukigawa, Kazuyuki Kiyohei
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1797?–1824Ngare Raumati leader, cultural go-between
Tuai, of Ngare Raumati in the south-eastern Bay of Islands, was an early cultural intermediary between Māori and Europeans. His short, extraordinary adult life was spent in Australia and England as well as New Zealand, where he was a leader amongst his people at Pāroa and acted as a go-between...
Story: Tuai