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Charles Nalder Baeyertz was born in Melbourne, Australia, on 15 December 1866, the son of Emilia Louisa Aronson and her husband, Charles Baeyertz, manager of the National Bank of Australasia at Colac, Victoria. After…

Raharuhi Rukupō of Rongowhakaata is said to have been born at Ōrākaiapu pā, Manutūkē, in Poverty Bay, at the beginning of the nineteenth century. He was the second son of Te Pohepohe (also known as Pītau) of Ngāti Maru…

David Stanley Smith was born in Dunedin on 11 February 1888, the first child of John Gibson Smith, a Presbyterian minister, and his wife, Ann Gibb. His primary education began in Dunedin, but was completed at the Middle…

George Grey is believed to have been born in Lisbon, Portugal, on 14 April 1812. His father, Lieutenant Colonel George Grey, had been killed eight days before, during an attack by the Duke of Wellington's army on…

George Laking was one of New Zealand’s key twentieth-century public servants. In a career lasting more than 40 years, he was adviser on international relations to successive governments and an important diplomat during…

Margaret Mahy is New Zealand’s most celebrated writer for children and young adults. In a 55-year career she published more than 120 titles: novels, picture books, short stories, poems and educational texts, as well as…

Alfred Domett is said to have been born on 20 May 1811 at Camberwell Grove, Surrey, England, and was baptised on 4 November 1812 at Bermondsey. His father, Nathaniel Domett, was a ship owner of naval and merchant…

Paraire Karaka Paikea was the great-grandson of Paikea Te Hekeua, a prominent chief of Te Uri-o-Hau and Ngāti Whatua. His father was Karaka Eramiha Paikea, and his mother was Tuhi Harirū Maihi, daughter of Wereti and…

The distinguished writer and journalist Christine Cole Catley was one of New Zealand’s leading independent publishers of the late twentieth century. She was co-founder of the Parents Centre movement in the 1950s, and an…

Heke Pōkai was born at Pākaraka, near the Bay of Islands, probably after the death of his mother's brother Pōkaia, after whom he was named, at the battle of Moremonui (also known as Te Kai-a-te-karoro and Te Haenga-o-te…

Samuel Butler was born probably on 4 December 1835 at Langar Rectory, Nottinghamshire, England, and was baptised on 17 December 1835. He was the second child of the Reverend Thomas Butler and his wife, Fanny Worsley. He…

Mark Cohen's origins explain both his incessant desire to improve the world and the restless drive he brought to the task. Born on 26 November 1849 in the Stepney district of London, England, he was the eldest child of…

Jules Sébastien César Dumont d'Urville was born on 23 May 1790 at Condé sur Noireau, Normandy, France. He was the son of Gabriel Charles François Dumont d'Urville, a civil and criminal judge and heir to vast estates,…

James Hight was among the most formative influences on higher education in New Zealand during the first half of the twentieth century and, because of his deep imprint on students, well into the second half. He was born…

Hēnare Kaihau was born probably between 1854 and 1860 at Waiuku, on the southern Manukau Harbour. He was the son of Ngāti Te Ata chief Aihepene (Ahipene) Kaihau, who also had tribal affiliations with Ngāti Urupikia,…

Pinepine Te Rika was born probably in 1857 or 1858 at Rāhitiroa, an old settlement of Ngāti Kuri just east of Te Waiiti, in the Bay of Plenty. Her father was Te Rika Te Wheura (sometimes known as Te Mīkaera Te Rika or…

Te Hāpuku, sometimes called Te Ika-nui-o-te-moana, was born in the late eighteenth century. He was a leader of Ngāti Te Whatuiāpiti. Kinship links within Ngāti Kahungunu, Rangitāne, Ngāti Ira and other major tribal…

John Macmillan Brown was born on 5 May 1845 in the Ayrshire town of Irvine, Scotland. Registered at birth simply as John Brown, he was the sixth child of Ann Brown and her husband, James Brown, a shipmaster. A woman 'of…

Ernest Rutherford was born at Spring Grove in rural Nelson, New Zealand, on 30 August 1871, the fourth child of 12 born to James Rutherford, a mechanic, and his wife, Martha Thompson, who had been the schoolteacher at…

Tony Druce was New Zealand’s pre-eminent twentieth-century field botanist. Over his lifetime he built up an extensive knowledge of New Zealand’s flora, through his many tramping trips, close observation of plants and…