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...

Joseph Zillwood was baptised at Cholderton, Wiltshire, England, on 23 December 1804. He was the son of Thomas Zillwood, a farmer, and his wife, Elizabeth Silver. Little is known of his early life, although he worked as an agricultural labourer and at Laverstock Asylum, near Salisbury. On 26...

Rachael Ngeungeu Te Irirangi Beamish was born at Waiariki, Mercer, Waikato, on 10 October 1893, the third of ten children of Richard Evanson Beamish, a settler and later master mariner, and his wife, Rangi Takotokino Emere (Emily) Maxwell. Rangi was the daughter of Ānaru Mākiwhara (Andrew...

Victor Dmitrievich Zotov (Zotoff) was born in Vladivostok, Russia, on 16 September 1908. Little is known of his early life, but in 1924 he emigrated to New Zealand with his parents, Dmitry Nikitich Zotoff and his wife, Olga Ivanovna Mikulovskaya. The family settled in Bunnythorpe, Manawatu,...