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Filter biographies using dates, occupations and places related to people's lives.
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1874–1958Army nurse, matron
Fanny Wilson was born on 25 May 1874 at Christchurch, New Zealand, the daughter of Mary Jane Whitto and her husband, Samuel Wilson, a labourer. Fanny's father had served in the Crimean War and told her he owed his life to Florence Nightingale. Bedtime stories of 'The Lady with the Lamp'...
Story: Wilson, Fanny
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1900–1959Architect
Francis Gordon Wilson was born in Subiaco, a district of Perth, Western Australia, on 27 November 1900. His father, Francis (Frank) John Wilson, was a New Zealander and an architect, and his mother, Mary Catherine O’Hagan, was Irish. They had a second son, Leslie, in 1902. The family moved to...
Story: Wilson, Francis Gordon
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1907–1988Farmer, politician, radio journalist, conservationist, historian
George Hamish Ormond Wilson was born in Bulls on 18 November 1907, the eldest son of George Hamish Wilson, a farmer, and his wife, Ada Mary Ormond. His grandfathers, J. G. Wilson and J. D. Ormond, had taken up land in Rangitikei and Hawke’s Bay respectively, and both had played prominent roles...
Story: Wilson, George Hamish Ormond
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1793/1794?–1871Nurse, community leader
Helen Ann Simpson was born at Gibraltar, probably in 1793 or 1794. Her mother's name is unknown. Her father, James Simpson, was the United States consul general at Tangier. On 11 June 1840 in London, England, she married Peter Wilson, superintendent of the civil hospital at Gibraltar. He would...
Story: Wilson, Helen Ann
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1869–1957Teacher, farmer, community leader, writer
Helen Wilson achieved recognition as a leading figure in the Women's Division of the New Zealand Farmers' Union and, in later years, as a writer. She was born Helen Mary Ostler at Oamaru, New Zealand, on 4 May 1869, the eldest of three children of Emma Brignell Roberts and her husband, William...
Story: Wilson, Helen Mary
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1885–1974Dentist, regional promoter
Ivon Vernon Wilson was born at Dunedin on 27 November 1885, the son of Elizabeth Christiana Baker and her husband, James Wilson, a brewer. After attending Southland Boys’ High School (1900–1902), he was apprenticed to Invercargill dental surgeon A. E. Smith. Ivon became a registered dentist in...
Story: Wilson, Ivon Vernon
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1814–1898Farmer, politician
James Wilson is said to have been born at Prestwick, Ayrshire, Scotland, on 14 March 1814, the eldest of the 11 children of Ruth Kerr and her husband, James Wilson, a bootmaker. After attending Wallacetown Academy, Ayr, James worked for a local farmer, and then trained in farm management in...
Story: Wilson, James
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1849–1929Farmer, politician, farming lobbyist
James Glenny Wilson was born at Hawick, Roxburghshire, Scotland, probably on 29 November 1849. His father, George Wilson, was a woollen manufacturer, and his mother, Jane Law, the daughter of a minister in the Church of Scotland. James, the youngest of four sons, was educated at the local...
Story: Wilson, James Glenny
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1829–1909Farmer, soldier, public servant, judge, businessman
John Alexander Wilson was born probably on 21 April 1829 at Condé-sur-Noireau, Calvados, France, the eldest son of John Alexander Wilson, a naval officer, and his first wife, Anne Catherine Hawker. In 1832 his father was accepted as a lay preacher with the Church Missionary Society. The family...
Story: Wilson, John Alexander
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1808–1881Judge, farmer, politician
John Cracroft Wilson was born on 21 May 1808 and was baptised at Mangalore in the Madras Presidency of India, the only son of Alexander Wilson and his wife, Elizabeth Cleminta Cracroft. In 1826 he entered Brasenose College, Oxford. Probably on 4 November 1828 at Westminster, or Brixton, Surrey...
Story: Wilson, John Cracroft
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1894–1977Public servant, diplomat
Joseph Vivian Wilson – JV to his colleagues, Vivian to his family – was a man of many parts. He was a brilliant classical scholar who might well have had a distinguished academic career. But it is as one of the founding fathers of the New Zealand foreign service that he most deserves to be...
Story: Wilson, Joseph Vivian
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1883–1962Domestic worker, community leader
Mabel Rose Newton was born at Southbridge, near Lake Ellesmere, Canterbury, on 26 February 1883, the daughter of Annie Donald and her husband, Frank Newton, a tanner. She was the eldest of six children and helped her mother raise the others. In 1908 she became one of the first students to...
Story: Wilson, Mabel Rose
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1832–1899Merchant, company director
Robert Wilson was born in Omagh, County Tyrone, Ireland, probably on 16 December 1832 and educated at the local school. His parents, Robert Wilson and his wife, Margaret Allen, farmed flax for the linen trade at Omagh. The Wilsons emigrated to Victoria, Australia, in 1852. Their farm at...
Story: Wilson, Robert
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1819–1897Nurseryman, businessman, local politician
William Barbour Wilson was born, on 2 April 1819, at Castle Douglas, Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland, the eldest child of Jane Thomson and her husband, William Wilson. William Barbour Wilson was apprenticed as a nurseryman in Scotland, and became an overseer on estates in Ireland. He arrived in...
Story: Wilson, William Barbour
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1919–1968Architect, university lecturer
Bill Wilson was a key figure in Group Architects, an Auckland collective instrumental in developing a modern architecture responsive to New Zealand’s culture and conditions. This interest informed the buildings he designed and the influence he had on his peers and subsequent generations of New...
Story: Wilson, William Douglas
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1810–1888Master mariner, cartographer, harbourmaster, pilot
Thomas Wing was born on 19 June 1810 at Bradfield, Essex, England. He was the son of Matthew Wing, a mariner, and his wife, Elizabeth Cousins. Wing acquired his nautical knowledge during his youth when he lived at the port of Harwich, Essex.
In November 1828 Wing sailed as a crewmember...
Story: Wing, Thomas
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1912–1960Ngāti Ranginui leader, Methodist minister, teacher, anthropologist, broadcaster, community leader
Maharaia Winiata, commonly known as Maha, was born on 29 September 1912 at Ngāhina pā, near Rūātoki, in the eastern Bay of Plenty. His parents were Winiata Piahana and his wife, Te Ruakawhena Kohu, both of Ngāi Tamarāwaho, a hapū of Ngāti Ranginui. The springs at Ngāhina pā were a tapu...
Story: Winiata, Maharaia
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1860–1931Bank clerk, photographer
Henry Winkelmann was born on 26 September 1860 in Bradford, Yorkshire, England, one of eight children of Louise Schüller and her husband, Peter Winkelmann, a stuff and yarn merchant. He spent parts of his childhood in nearby Gomersal, Bramley and Manningham and appears to have attended school...
Story: Winkelmann, Henry
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1912–1944Aviator
Jane Winstone was born at Wanganui on 24 September 1912, the daughter of Lina Storme Clapham and her husband, Arthur George Winstone, a chemist. The eldest of three sisters, she grew up in the family home on Durie Hill. At 16, while still a pupil at Sacred Heart Convent, she took up flying as a...
Story: Winstone, Jane
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1906–1976Ngāi Tahu leader, public servant, union official, political activist
Frank David Winter (registered as Francis David Charles) was born at Waipukurau on 5 January 1906, the first child of Caroline Blanche Thomas and her husband, David Horatio Winter, a telegraph linesman. His grandmother, Eliza Thomas (Raiha Tāmati), had lived on Stewart Island and was a member...
Story: Winter, Frank David