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John Sinclair, the eldest son of Mary Ann Henderson and her husband, John Sinclair, a carpenter, was born in Olrig, Caithness, Scotland, on 18 September 1843. He was educated at Olrig parish school. Nothing else is…

Andrew Sinclair was born at Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland, on 13 April 1794, the son of John Sinclair, a weaver, and his wife, Agnes Renfrew. He never married. From 1814 to 1818 Sinclair studied medicine and surgery…

Elizabeth McHutchison, usually known as Eliza, was born in Glasgow, Scotland, probably on 26 April 1800. She is said to have been the daughter of Jean Robertson and her husband, the merchant James McHutchison. The…

In the second half of the twentieth century, Keith Sinclair transformed how New Zealanders understood themselves and their history. A prominent poet and New Zealand’s most important historian of the 1950s and 1960s, his…

Frederick Sinclaire was born in Papakura Valley near Auckland on 10 July 1881, the son of Irish parents Mary Carson and her husband, John Sinclaire, a farmer. The Sinclaires were poor, but at 11, Frederick, a pupil at…

William Livingstone Hatchwell Sinclair was born at Kirkmanshulme near Manchester, Lancashire, England, on 18 February 1880, the son of Eliza Maria Sandford and her husband, Archibald Sinclair, a shipping merchant. His…

Mary Ann Sinclair was born in a raupo hut at Pirinoa, southern Wairarapa, New Zealand, on 29 January 1864. She was the youngest of seven children of Scottish settlers Katherine McCallum and her husband, Donald Sinclair…

Harold Winston Rhodes was born on 21 July 1905 at Malvern, Melbourne, Australia, the son of Winifred Mary Short and her husband, Thomas Rhodes, a doctor. Winston attended Melbourne High School and then the University of…

Andrew Kennaway Henderson was born in London, England, on 25 May 1879, the son of Andrew Henderson, a commercial clerk, and his wife, Alice Otley. Around 1885 the family emigrated to New Zealand, where Henderson senior…

One of New Zealand’s most prolific and widely published poets, William Kendrick Smithyman was born on 9 October 1922 in Te Kopuru, a milling town near Dargaville, Northland. He was the only child of William Kendrick…

Irāia Te Whāiti, also known as Irāia Te Ama and Te Ama-o-te-rangi, was born in south Wairarapa, probably in 1861 or 1862. He was the eldest child of Te Rangihakahaka Te Whāiti and Hine-ki-te-rangi, both of Ngāti…

Violet Alberta (Berta) Jessie Watson, one of the first women to achieve high office in the New Zealand National Party, was born in Winchester, South Canterbury, on 12 March 1893, the first of two children of Agnes…

Charles Knight was baptised at Rye, Sussex, England, on 14 July 1808, the youngest child of James and Ann Knight. His father died in 1808 and in 1810 his mother married Thomas Godfrey of Hawkhurst, Kent. In October 1828…

James Rutherford was born in Dunston, near Newcastle upon Tyne, England, on 27 January 1906, the son of Sarah Alice Gladstone and her husband, Ralph Archibald Rutherford, a railway clerk. An able son of parents in…

Margaret Moxon was born on 18 August 1808 in the parish of Sculcoates, Hull, Yorkshire, England, the daughter of Margaret Heaton and her husband, John Moxon, a businessman and banker. She was well educated, and became…

Thomas Bannatyne Gillies was born at Rothesay, on the Isle of Bute, Scotland, on 17 January 1828. He was the eldest of nine children of John Gillies, local lawyer and town clerk, and his wife, Isabella Lillie, daughter…

Joseph Dalton Hooker is said to have been born at Halesworth, Suffolk, England, on 30 June 1817, and was baptised there on 3 July. He was the younger son of Sir William Jackson Hooker and his wife, Maria Sarah Turner.…

William Arthur Sewell was born on 9 August 1903 in Goole, Yorkshire, England, the son of William John Sewell, a chemist, and his wife, Ada Mary Hill. Arthur's family were devout Methodists, and from the age of seven he…

Maurice Noel Duggan ranks with Katherine Mansfield and Frank Sargeson as one of New Zealand’s greatest short-story writers and literary stylists. He was born in Auckland on 25 November 1922 and grew up on the North…

George Ranald Macdonald, the son of Gertrude Gould and her husband, Ranald Macintosh Macdonald, was born at St Albans, Christchurch, on 4 October 1891. His maternal grandfather, George Gould, had been a leading merchant…