Advanced Biographies Search
Filter biographies using dates, occupations and places related to people's lives.
-
1840–1896Catholic bishop
John Luck was born in Peckham, Surrey, England, on 18 March 1840, one of seven children of Alfred Luck, a warehouseman, and his wife, Clementina Golding. Theirs was a profoundly religious household. After the death of his wife about 1847, Alfred Luck, a convert to Catholicism, shifted his...
Story: Luck, John Edmund
-
1827–1909Journalist, newspaper editor, politician, public servant
David Luckie (Mitchell was added later) was born in Montrose, Forfarshire, Scotland, on 5 October 1827, the son of Thomas Luckie, a merchant, and his wife, Mary Mitchell. He was educated there and worked in a mercantile office and as a law clerk before working for a number of newspapers. At...
Story: Luckie, David Mitchell
-
1921–1939Athlete, shorthand typist
Bernice and Doreen Lumley were born at Grey Lynn, Auckland, on 29 August 1921, the identical-twin daughters and first of three children of William Lumley and his wife, Annie Mabel James. A Londoner, William had served in the Royal Marines before emigrating to New Zealand, where he worked for...
Story: Lumley, Bernice
-
1828?–1899Entrepreneur, politician, diplomatist
John Lundon was a not atypical 'public man' in mid nineteenth century New Zealand, a society where political forms and commercial relationships could be worked to personal advantage by those with a sharp eye for the main chance. In a varied career as a farmer, land owner, contractor, man of...
Story: Lundon, John
-
1916–1994Mechanic, motor-racing driver, garage proprietor, motor vehicle dealer
Sybil Audrey Marie Colley (or Wellesley-Colley) was born at Greenfields, her parents’ sheep farm near Clive in Hawke’s Bay, on 1 August 1916, the daughter of Ethel Violet Mary Goulter and her husband, Joseph Wellesley Colley. Her mother came from a well-established Marlborough family descended...
Story: Lupp, Sybil Audrey Marie
-
1916–1990Artist and art teacher, potter, university lecturer
Doris More Lusk was born on 5 May 1916 in Dunedin, the daughter of Thomas Younger Lusk, an architect, and his wife, Alice Mary Coats. Her childhood was spent mostly in Hamilton, where the family had a house on the banks of the Waikato River. In 1928 they returned to Dunedin, and Doris had one...
Story: Lusk, Doris More
-
1907–1987Journalist, drama critic, theatre administrator, adult educationalist
Wilfrid Mervyn Lusty was born in Auckland on 25 March 1907, the second of three children of Mary Walsh and her husband, William David Lusty. His mother was a keen writer, his father a journalist who later became a sub-editor at the New Zealand Herald ; both belonged to the Auckland Dickens...
Story: Lusty, Wilfrid Mervyn
-
1865–1924Architect, building contractor
Edgar Alfred Luttrell was born in Hobart, Tasmania, on 21 October 1865; his younger brother, registered as Edward Sydney, was born in Sydney, New South Wales, on 20 June 1872. The elder brother was known as Alfred Edgar, the younger as Sidney. Their parents were Alfred Ernest Luttrell, a...
Story: Luttrell, Alfred Edgar
-
1890–1971Judge, local politician
John Hector Luxford was born at Palmerston North on 28 May 1890 to William Lewis Luxford, a prosperous timber merchant, and his wife, Isabella Eleanor Carolina Gonzales. He attended schools in Palmerston North and Dannevirke and Wanganui Collegiate School from 1903 to 1907. He was admitted to...
Story: Luxford, John Hector
-
1895–1994Actress, radio broadcaster, journalist, hostess
Nola Luxford was a New Zealand-born actress, writer, pioneer broadcaster and founder of the Anzac Club in New York City during the Second World War. Born Adelaide Minola Pratt on 23 December 1895 at Hunterville, she was the eldest of three children of Adelaide Agnes McGonagle, a schoolteacher...
Story: Luxford, Nola
-
1917–2004Runner and running coachLydiard and his system
The gregarious, dogmatic, hyperactive running coach Arthur Leslie Lydiard is one of the few New Zealand sportsmen to have influenced millions of people around the world. His system of training produced record-breaking runners and stimulated the international growth of...
Story: Lydiard, Arthur Leslie
-
1901–1980Sculptor, artist, writer, film-maker
Leonard Charles Huia Lye was born on 5 July 1901 in Christchurch. A year earlier the marriage of his parents, Rose Ann Cole and Harry Lye, a hairdresser, had caused conflict between his father’s Anglican and his mother’s Irish Catholic associates. Len grew up opposed to what he saw as the...
Story: Lye, Leonard Charles Huia
-
fl. 1867–1868Domestic servant
Nothing is known of Margaret Lynch's background or early life, nor of the circumstances which brought her to New Zealand. She may have arrived in New Zealand by free passage as a government-assisted immigrant. Young, single women were encouraged to emigrate in the 1860s and 1870s to overcome a...
Story: Lynch, Margaret
-
1905–1981Biologist, science historian, illustrator
Averil Margaret Lysaght was born on 14 April 1905 at Mokoia, near Hawera, the daughter of Emily Muriel Stowe and her husband, Brian Cuthbert Lysaght, a farmer. The second of five daughters, she was taught at home by governesses until at 12 she went to board at Chilton House School in...
Story: Lysaght, Averil Margaret
-
1867–1942Lawyer, landowner, politician
William Douglas Lysnar was born at Onehunga, Auckland, New Zealand, on 30 April 1867, the fourth of twelve children of William Dean Lysnar, a schoolmaster, and his wife, Frances Sarah Brewer. Douglas (as he was known) received his formal education from his father, who took up various teaching...
Story: Lysnar, William Douglas
-
1873–1945Novelist, short story writer
The author of a dozen novels and many scores of short stories that were widely read in New Zealand during the first four decades of the twentieth century, Edith Joan Lyttleton was born on 18 December 1873 at Clyne Vale, a family sheepfarming property at Epping, near Campbell Town in northern...
Story: Lyttleton, Edith Joan
-
1904–1978Ngāti Kahungunu and Ngāi Tahu; doctor
Golan Haberfield Maaka, also known as Te Kōrana, was born on 4 April 1904 on Ōruawharo station, Takapau, Hawke's Bay. His father was Aritaku Maaka, of Ngāti Hikatoa of Waimārama and Ngāi Tahu of Takapau, hapū of Ngāti Kahungunu. On his maternal side Aritaku was descended from Te Ori, who had...
Story: Maaka, Golan Haberfield
-
1920–1979Sculptor
Molly Morell Macalister was born at Invercargill on 18 May 1920, the eldest of three daughters of Stanley Morell Macalister, a solicitor, and his wife, Catherine Holmes McQueen. A partner in the prominent Invercargill law firm Macalister Brothers, Morell Macalister was an intelligent and kindly...
Story: Macalister, Molly Morell
-
1819?–1887Merchant, ship owner, politician, provincial superintendent
James Macandrew, the son of a merchant, Colin Macandrew, and his wife, Barbara Johnston, was baptised in Aberdeen, Scotland, on 18 May 1819. Little is known of his early life; he is said to have attended Ayr Academy and worked for some years in a merchant's office. As Aberdeen was a stronghold...
Story: Macandrew, James
-
1866–1949Pianist, organist, music teacher, conductor
Jennie West was born in Dunedin, New Zealand, on 6 September 1866, the daughter of George Richard West, a music shop proprietor, and his wife, Mary Elizabeth Newman, a music teacher who ran a private school in Moray Place. Jennie had her first music lesson on her fifth birthday. She attended...
Story: Macandrew, Jennie