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Hugh McLean Campbell was born at Te Aute, near Pukehou, Hawke's Bay, on 21 March 1875, the fourth child and only son of Hugh Campbell and his wife, Margaret Gardiner, who died three years later. Hugh senior had managed…

Joan Embury Feltham was born in Wellington on 16 October 1912, the second child of Harriett Embury and her husband, Edgar Charles Feltham, a schoolteacher. Her elder sister died in 1914 and her brother required constant…

Alfred Hyde Cockayne was born on 23 May 1880 in Dunedin or Oamaru. His parents, Leonard Cockayne and Maria Maude Blakeley, married in February 1881. Leonard went on to become an internationally noted botanist, and his…

The sturdy figure of Assid Abraham Corban, with his magnificent walrus moustache and trademark waistcoat and chains, gazes sternly down from a wall in the entrance to the head office of Corbans Wines Limited. For much…

James Douglas Charlton Edgar was born in Brantford, Ontario, Canada, on 22 May 1903, the son of Minnie Ott and her husband, James Douglas Edgar, a Presbyterian minister. He lived in Toronto before moving to Edinburgh.…

Maud Russell England was born on 30 December 1863 in Rugby, Warwickshire, England, the daughter of Russell England, an army officer, and his wife, Emily Alice Ainsworth. She attended Oxford High School for Girls and…

William Raymond Fell was born on 26 October 1904 at Melksham, Wiltshire, England, the son of Edward Thomas Abraham Richards Fell, a farmer, and his wife, Mary Blanche Collett. The family came to New Zealand in 1912 and…

Arthur Hadfield Fisher was born at Nelson, New Zealand, on 11 February 1871, the son of Thomas Richard Fisher, a merchant, and his second wife, Frances Anne Hadfield. Thomas Fisher joined the Standard Fire and Marine…

Woolf Fisher was born in Wellington on 20 May 1912, the eldest of six children of Jewish parents Michael Fisher and his wife, Fanny Dabscheck. His father, who owned the bakery and general store in Paraparaumu, was from…

Hanorah (Nora) Philomena FitzGibbon was born at Arrow Junction near Arrowtown, Otago, on 19 March 1889, the fourth of nine children of Mary Lynch and her husband, Edmond FitzGibbon, a farmer. While attending the convent…

Flora McMillan Ive was born at her parents’ farm near Wyndham, Southland, on 9 June 1883, the daughter of Catherine Stalker and her husband, Henry Ive, who later became a baker and master butcher. Little is known of her…

Annabella Mary (known as Mary) Webster was born on 19 May 1864 at Mangungu on the Hokianga Harbour, one of twins born to William Webster, an interpreter and sawmiller, and his wife, Annabella Gillies, whose mother was…

Elizabeth May Seddon was born on 24 March 1880 at Kūmara, Westland, the seventh of eleven children of Louisa Jane Spotswood and her husband, Richard John Seddon, later to be premier of New Zealand from 1893 to 1906.…

Ngāpiki (Maggie) Waaka was born on 4 May 1888 at Kai Iwi, north of Whanganui. She belonged to Ngāti Pūkeko, a hapū of Ngā Rauru, and to Ngāti Apa. Her parents were Waaka Hākaraia and his wife, Ngāpiki Rēweti Pāponga.…

William Maxwell Hamilton was born on 2 July 1909 at Warkworth, the youngest of four children of William Hamilton and his wife, Isabella Wilson. He grew up on the east bank of the Mahurangi River on the family dairy farm…

František Simon Hofmann was born on 27 December 1916 at Prague, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the son of Katerina Blochová and her husband, Rudolf Hofmann, a prosperous Jewish businessman. He was given a…

Alice Hannah Holford was born in New Plymouth, New Zealand, on 12 November 1867, the daughter of Annie Brooking and her husband, John Henry Holford, a mariner and later harbourmaster. From an early age her ambition was…

Edward Raymond Horton was born Edward Ray Gill at Blenheim on 28 July 1928, the son of Muriel Doreen Gill, also known as Amuri Fredreka Doreen Gill. His father, a married man, was Herman Edward Hermansen, a truck driver…

Alfred Jenkins was born in Long Gully, Bendigo, Australia, on 15 March 1901, the son of Emma Argall and her husband, Alfred Jenkins, a miner. An asthmatic from his early years, he was more than once sent away from the…

Rodney Eric Kennedy was a friend of artists and a passionate advocate of what has become the modern canon of New Zealand art. He was also a leader in experimental theatre, a witty, acerbic host, and an accomplished cook…