David McKee Wright was born at Ballynaskeagh, County Down, Ireland, on 6 August 1869, the second son of William Wright, a Presbyterian missionary, and his wife, Annie McKee. His mother remained only briefly in Ireland following his birth and he was raised by his grandmother, Rebecca McKee,...

Edward George Wright was born at Woolwich, Kent, England, on 14 June 1831, the son of Elizabeth and Thomas Wright. His father was a gunner in the Royal Horse Artillery. Edward Wright was educated at private schools and about 1847 joined Fox, Henderson and Company, engineers and contractors. In...

James Wright was born at Fenton, Staffordshire, England, on 11 April 1819, the son of Eleanor Bennet and her husband, William Wright, an engraver. On 9 March 1841, at Middlesbrough, Yorkshire, he married Mary Ann Tams. They were to have seven children, of whom three sons and a daughter...

Ruth Gray was born on 27 April 1908 at Pipiriki on the Whanganui River. She was one of many children of Robert Gray, a farmer of English and Māori descent, and his wife, Ngāraiti Tuatini of Ngāti Kura. Through her mother and grandmother, Ruth had connections to a number of other iwi, including...

Donald Frederick Wünsch was born on 16 January 1887 at Chorlton on Medlock, Manchester, England, the eldest son of Mary Sandys and her husband, Edward Wünsch, a shipping merchant. After going to school in Manchester, he studied natural science at New College, University of Oxford (1905–9),...

Kate Halbert was born probably at Tūtoko, near Waerenga-a-hika in Poverty Bay, in the early 1840s. She was the daughter of the trader Thomas Halbert and his fifth wife, Keita Kaikiri (Kaikeri). Through her mother she belonged to Ngāti Kaipoho of Rongowhakaata and was descended from Te Hukaipu....

According to family information, Robert Henry Wynyard was born on 24 December 1802, at Windsor Castle, Berkshire, England; he was baptised in London on 13 February 1803. He was the younger son of Jane Gladwin, lady-in-waiting to Queen Charlotte, and her husband, William Wynyard, colonel of the...

William Yate was born on 3 November 1802 and baptised in Bridgnorth, Shropshire, England, the son of Betty and John Yate of the parish of St Mary Magdalene. He was brought up in Bridgnorth, and at the age of 14 was apprenticed to a grocer. After finishing his apprenticeship, he determined to...

Elizabeth Oman was born in Caithness, Scotland, probably sometime between 1840 and 1848, the elder daughter of George Oman and his wife, Eleanor Lannigan. She arrived in Auckland, New Zealand, around December 1853 with her parents and sister Eleanor.

Little is known about her early life...

Ngāwini and Samuel Yates ran a large farm and general store in the far north of New Zealand during the latter part of the nineteenth century. Samuel Yates was born in London, England, probably in 1829, the son of Saul Yates, a solicitor, and his wife, Sarah Isaacs. Samuel's paternal grandfather...

George Franklyn Yerex was born in Wellington on 30 January 1893. His parents, Clara Pinny and her husband, George Manley Yerex, a Canadian-born importer, raised four boys and two girls in a large home on the hills above Lower Hutt. George attended Wellington College briefly, before moving with...

Frederick George Young was born in the East End of London, England, on 9 June 1888, the son of Emily Judge and her husband, William Young, a police constable. Fred arrived in New Zealand around 1905 and found work as a bellboy in an Auckland hotel. By 1911 he was a porter at a Rotorua boarding...

John Bruce Young was born at Kaiapoi, Canterbury, on 25 August 1888, the son of Mary Ann Brundell and her husband, Charles James Young, a farmer. Educated at Kaiapoi Borough School, Bruce Young passed the standard six examination in July 1902 and left to drive a Woodend storekeeper’s cart....

A gifted teacher and an educationalist concerned with increasing women's opportunities, Stephanie Grace Young was known and admired beyond the schools in which she taught. She was born on 13 July 1890 at Amberley Rectory, Stroud, Gloucestershire, England, the daughter of an Anglican clergyman...

William Gray Young was the son of Matthew Gray Young and his wife, Agnes Anderson Barclay, and was born in Oamaru on 21 June 1885. His father had arrived in New Zealand from Scotland as a watchmaker, and developed skills as a jewellery retailer in partnership with his brother. They moved their...

William Thomas (Tom) Young was born in Karori, Wellington, New Zealand, on 27 April 1870, the son of Jessie Dykes and her husband, William Young, a farmer. Tom Young began work when he was 11 and went to sea soon after. His involvement with the union movement can be traced to 1895, when he was...

Adela Mary Roche was born at Te Awamutu on 3 April 1878, the second child of Emily Adela Malcolm and her Irish-born husband, Hungerford Roche, a farmer and local politician. Her aunt, Fanny Osborne, was a well-known painter of New Zealand flora. Adele, as she preferred to be known, was raised...

Harold Wilfred Youren was born in Auckland on 23 April 1910 to Mary Philpott Pitcher and her husband, David Prinald Youren, a banker. He was educated at Wellington College and gained both Junior and Senior National Scholarships. He then attended Victoria University College and Auckland...

Yue Ah Hee, a Chinese merchant, emigrated to Otago, New Zealand, from the village of Lee Yuan, Sunning (Taishan) county, Guangdong province, and in 1877 married a Scottish domestic servant, Mary Ferguson. On 15 July 1881 at Roxburgh the fourth of five children was born, and registered with the...

George William Edward Ernest von Zedlitz, first professor of modern languages at Victoria College, Wellington, New Zealand, was born near Neukirch, Germany, on 10 March 1871, the only child of an Englishwoman, Mary Bethia Wolff, and her husband, Baron Sigismund von Zedlitz und Neukirch, a...