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Tuiti Makitānara (Sweet MacDonald) was born at Havelock, Marlborough, on 8 August 1874, of Rangitāne, Ngāti Kuia, Ngāti Apa and Muaūpoko descent. He was the second child and eldest son of Rina Puhipuhi Meihana and Teoti…

Weretā Tainui Pītama, also known as Te Ruapōhatu or ‘Stone’, was born, probably in 1881, at Rāpaki, just south of Christchurch. His father was Teoti Pītama Karatiti, a farmer, of the Canterbury Ngāi Tahu hapū, Ngāi…

Emily Hancock Siedeberg was born on 17 February 1873 at Clyde, New Zealand. She was the third child of Irish Quaker Anna Thompson and her German architect husband, Franz David Siedeberg, who, lured by gold, had…

George Waldemar Skjellerup was born at Cobden, Victoria, Australia, on 14 February 1881, the youngest of 13 children of Margaret Williamson and her husband, Peder Jensen Skjellerup, a farmer who died before George's…

Hugh Crawford Dixon Somerset (known as Crawford) was born in Belfast, North Canterbury, on 29 August 1895. He was the eldest of four children of Jane Dixon and her husband, George Crawford Black Somerset, a blacksmith…

Anna Lois White was born in Auckland on 2 November 1903, the daughter of Annie Phillipps and her husband, Arthur Herbert White, an architect. Both the White and the Phillipps families had helped establish Methodism in…

Kenneth McLean Baxter was born at Naseby, Otago, on 30 July 1893, the eldest child and only son of Theresa Reed and her husband, Robinson Wyllie Baxter, an Australian-born goldminer. His parents were strict…

Eramiha Neke Kapua was one of the most eminent Māori carvers of the twentieth century. His father was the well-known Ngāti Tarāwhai carver Neke Kapua, and his mother was Mereana Waitere, the elder sister of Tene Waitere…

The name of John Davies Wilder Ormond came to be synonymous with the New Zealand meat industry in the three decades following the Second World War. He was born at Waipukurau on 8 September 1905, the eldest son of…

Colin Graham Scrimgeour was born at Wairoa on 30 January 1903, the son of John Graham Scrimgeour, a farmer, and his wife, Robina Maud Clunie. He left school at the age of 11 and unsuccessfully tried to enlist for…

Charles Bathurst was born in London, England, on 21 September 1867, the son of Charles Bathurst, a barrister of Lydney Park, Gloucestershire, and his wife, Mary Elizabeth Hay. He was educated at Sherborne School, Eton…

Rhoda Alice Aspin was born in Skipton, Yorkshire, England, on 22 June 1889, one of three children of Maria Jane Aspin and her husband James Aspin, a loomer in a cotton factory. The family emigrated to Wellington, New…

George Bruce Bolt was born on 24 May 1893 at Dunedin, the son of Frederick William Bolt, a salesman, and his wife, Mary Inkster Tait. His interest in aviation began as a nine-year-old when he watched early hot-air…

Martha Sarah Kāhui Isaac (Īhakara) was born on 30 March 1895 at The Neck, Stewart Island. Her mother, Maryanne (Mereana) Louise Mapepe Isaac, was the daughter of Alice Pohe Whaitiri of Ngāi Taoka, a hapū of Ngāi Tahu,…

James Thomas Burrows was born at Prebbleton, near Christchurch, on 13 July 1904, the sixth of seven children of Frederick William Burrows, a storekeeper, and his wife, Sarah Johnson. Most of his childhood was spent at…

May Edith Evelyn Edwards was born in Islington, London, on 2 May 1891, the daughter of Isabella Rose and her husband, James William Edwards, a compositor. She was privately educated, spoke Italian, French and some…

Muriel Carrick Wilson was born on 18 March 1907 at Whangarei, the second of six children of John Munro Wilson, a surveyor, and his wife, Mildred Carrick Proude. Pursuing his work, John Wilson moved his family about –…

Michael Myers was born at Motueka on 7 September 1873, the 13th child of Jewish parents Judah Myers, a merchant, and his wife, Eve Solomon. When he was six years old his family moved to Wellington; here he attended…

William Charles Nation was born in Sydney, Australia, on 18 February 1840, the eldest child of William Nation, a printer, and his wife, Mary Jenkin Howe. In 1857 the family moved to Nelson, New Zealand. On arrival…

Ralph O’Reilly Piddington was born on 19 February 1906 in Sydney, Australia, the son of Albert Bathurst Piddington, a barrister and later judge, and his wife, Marion Louisa O’Reilly, a eugenist writer and lecturer. He…