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Harold David London was born at Kimbolton, Manawatu, on 28 August 1906, the son of Catherine Waugh and her husband, Charles London, a sheepfarmer. Harold attended Valley Road School in Kimbolton (1913–20) and belonged…

Jessie Iris Martin was born in Wellington on 19 December 1898, the daughter of Harriet Wilhelmina Warnes and her husband, William Lee Martin, a storeman who later farmed at Matangi near Hamilton and became MP for Raglan…

Alexander Galbraith was born on 15 February 1883 at Allday, near Otepopo, Otago, the youngest son of William Galbraith and his wife, Leah Rodgers. His Scottish parents had emigrated to New Zealand with their first three…

Estelle Girda Beere was born in Wanganui, New Zealand, on 23 July 1875, one of five children of Edward Holroyd Beere, a surveyor, and his wife, Mary Brewer. When she was 11 years old her family moved to 76 Hill Street,…

Leonard John Cronin was born in Aramoho, Whanganui, on 16 November 1900, the son of Joseph Henry Cronin, an engineer, and his wife, Margaret Edwards. He was educated at Woodville District High School and began work as a…

Emily Patricia Thompson was born in Dublin, Ireland, according to family sources on 24 June 1864. She was the daughter of Anna Thompson (later known as Anna Ray) and Edmund La Touche, a barrister. She trained as a…

Arthur Langan Haddon was born on 3 October 1895 at Goulburn, New South Wales, Australia, the son of Walter Haddon, an engine driver, and his wife, Mary Langan. After attending Bourke Street Public School, he worked in…

Esther Marion Pretoria James was remarkable for the diversity of her achievements, and in the 1930s became a national celebrity during a sponsored walk of the length of New Zealand. She was born at Pahīatua on 5…

Olive Emily Jones was born in Onehunga, Auckland, on 20 June 1893. Her parents, Emily Mary Rout and Adam Jones, an English-born builder, had married in 1888. Olive attended Onehunga School, Auckland Girls’ Grammar…

Ante Kosovich, recognised as the bard of the Dalmatian kauri-gum diggers in New Zealand, was born on 5 November 1879 at Zaostrog on the coast of modern Croatia, then part of Austria-Hungary. He was the son of Simun…

New Zealand’s longest-serving journalist, Frederick Walter Gascoyne Miller was born at Hastings on 19 September 1904, the son of Caroline Manners Gascoyne and her husband, Walter McNair Miller, a clerk in the Department…

Marjory Lydia Nicholls was born at Wellington, New Zealand, on 29 July 1890, the daughter of Susan Sampson and her husband, Harry Edgar Nicholls, accountant and cashier to the Wellington Harbour Board. Harry Nicholls…

Francis John Turner was born in Auckland on 10 April 1904, the son of Gertrude Kingcome Reid and her husband, Joseph Hurst Turner, a Latin master at Auckland Grammar School. His father died in 1913, leaving Frank's…

At the time the longest-serving mayor in the city’s history, Jack Allum dominated Auckland’s local political life in the 1940s and 1950s. In particular, his name was to become indelibly associated with the construction…

Leo Vernon Bensemann was born in Tākaka, Golden Bay, on 1 May 1912, the son of Vernon Victor Bensemann, a blacksmith, and his wife, Ruby Arnold. He was the great-grandchild of German immigrants who had settled in the…

Mark Anthony Fagan was one of a number of Australian miners who arrived in New Zealand in the first decade of the twentieth century and had a profound influence on the development of the labour movement. The son of a…

Sidney Wilfred Scott was born in Ifield, Sussex, England, on 20 July 1900, the son of Walter Joseph Scott, a grocery manager, and his wife, Minnie Florence Church. In 1910 the family emigrated to New Zealand, settling…

The company formed and managed by John Seabrook helped shape the motor car market in the Auckland province during the years when the automobile irrevocably changed the social landscape. He was born on 6 January 1896 at…

In 1916, in a windowless tin shed on the desolate gumfields of New Zealand's far north, the young Josip Petrov Babich trod grapes with his feet, fermented wine and opened a wine-shop. From that humble beginning has…

William Alexander Bodkin was born in Queenstown on 28 April 1883, the son of Irish immigrants James Bodkin, a watchmaker, and his wife, Eleanor (Ellen) Black. In 1889 his father purchased the Monte Christo farm near…