Grace Nixon was born in Whāngārei on 6 July 1883, the daughter of Zillah Johnson and her husband, Adam Nixon, a fireman who later became a marine engineer. When Grace and her younger brother were infants, the Nixon…
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Christopher James Parr was born on 18 May 1869 at Pukerimu, near Cambridge, New Zealand, the son of Reuben Parr, a farmer, and his wife, Maria Greaves. Although the family shifted to Waihou, near Te Aroha, when James…
The beginning of the extensive business interests of the Myers family today go back to the late 1850s when two German Jewish brothers, Louis and Bernard Ehrenfried, left their farm near Hamburg for the Victorian…
See 154 results in Te Ara Images & Media
During the 1920s the citizens of Auckland benefited from a number of munificent bequests given by Marianne Smith. An enigmatic and very private person, she was unusual in that unlike most wealthy women of the time she…
Joseph Burns was born in Liverpool, England, in 1805 or 1806 of Irish parents. He joined the Royal Navy as a ship's carpenter at about the age of 20, and arrived at the Bay of Islands, New Zealand, on the Buffalo in…
Alan Edward Mulgan was born on 18 May 1881 at George Vesey Stewart's Irish Protestant settlement in Katikati, in the Bay of Plenty. He was the son of Frances Maria Johnston and her husband, Edward Ker Mulgan, a farmer…
Allen (Allan) Bell was born at Southbridge, Canterbury, New Zealand, on 14 February 1870. He was the son of Allen Bell, a farmer, and his wife, Mary Mathews. Allen senior was apparently forced off his land in the…
David Patrick Fisher was born in Dublin, Ireland, probably between 1849 and 1852. He was the son of Elizabeth McLeod and her husband, James Fisher, the government printer, both Scottish. About 1859 his parents moved to…
Edith Stanway Swainson was born on 27 April 1844 in the Hutt valley, Wellington, New Zealand, the seventh child of William Swainson, a naturalist and artist, and the second child of Anne Grasby, his second wife. Her…
William Bernard McIlveney was born in Greymouth on 8 March 1867, the son of Irish parents Ellen Biggim and her husband, Bernard McIlveney, a flax dresser and goldminer at Kumara. Educated privately, William began…
Auckland artist Pauline Thompson produced a distinctive and challenging body of work over a career spanning five decades. Her paintings used allegorical imagery to explore her own family history, the lives of women and…
Herbert Sutcliffe was born in Louth, Lincolnshire, England, on 19 October 1886, the son of Elizabeth Easter Allen and her husband, John James Sutcliffe, an engineer. A lifelong love of singing came from involvement in…
Willis Thomas Goodwin (Bill) Airey was born in Auckland on 7 January 1897. His father, Walter Henry Airey, an inspector of schools, had died three months earlier, leaving a widow, Margaret Avon McDonald, and seven…
Ngāpipi Rēweti was an enigmatic and controversial figure. Almost the whole of his recorded life was dominated by competition between Māori living on the Auckland isthmus and European authorities for ownership of land at…
James Healy was born at Devonport, Auckland, on 10 September 1910, the son of Sarah Roulston Wallace and her husband, William Healy, a marine engineer. He began his schooling at Devonport, and then took the ferry across…
Edward (Ted) Buckland Firth and Guy Mortimer (Tony) Firth, the founders of Firth Industries, were born in Auckland on 27 September 1905 and 15 April 1907 respectively. They were the younger sons of Edward (Ned) Thompson…
William Robert Murray was born at Kirkby Stephen, Westmorland, England, on 25 April 1896, the son of Elizabeth Carne and her husband, John Murray, a postman. The youngest of six children, Bill attended the local board…
William Douglas Cook was born in New Plymouth on 28 October 1884, the second child of William Cook, a bank officer, and his wife, Jessie Turnbull Miller. Both parents were from affluent, well-connected Scottish families…
Lawson Lysnar Copland Field was born on 11 February 1896 at Kaiti, Gisborne, the son of Ida Mary Lysnar and her husband, James Copland Field, a sheepfarmer. At an early age he was captivated by machines, an interest he…
George Buckingham, one of the pioneers of theatre in Auckland, came to New Zealand from Australia late in 1843 on the City of Sydney, accompanied by his wife and three children. Like many other entertainers who…