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Richard Atkinson Abbott was born on 6 January 1883 in Auckland, the son of Samuel Litton Abbott, a farmer, and his wife, Constantia Sophia Atkinson. His father was English and his mother Irish. After attending St John’s…

One of New Zealand's greatest aviators, Keith Logan Caldwell was by his own account born in Wellington, New Zealand, on 16 October 1895. He was the son of David Robert Caldwell, a merchant, and his wife, Mary Dunlop…

Keith Wilson Hay was born in Hastings on 13 December 1917, the third child in a family of five. His father, William Cattley Hay, a farm labourer, had emigrated to Invercargill in 1903 and married Elsie May Major (née…

Ida Mary Withers was born in Wellington on 1 May 1903, the daughter of Elizabeth Robins and her husband, John Talbot Withers, a decorator. She grew up at Duvauchelle on Banks Peninsula and was educated at Christchurch…

Whāea (mother) Betty Wark worked with ‘at risk’ Māori youth in Auckland for more than 30 years. The product of a difficult childhood, she struggled to provide a family environment to many young people whose lives had…

George Fraser was born at Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, probably on 28 June 1832, the son of Rachel Gray and her husband, George Fraser, an iron moulder. After attending a local school he was apprenticed at the age…

Alfred Buckland was born at Newton Abbot, Devon, England, probably on 17 December 1825, and was baptised on 12 January 1826. He was the fifth son of John Buckland, a broker, and his wife, Elizabeth Mortimore. Alfred…

The brothers James and Walter McDonald were born in the townland of Nicholastown, Mooncoin parish, County Kilkenny, Ireland, James on 10 August 1824, Walter on 14 December 1830. Their parents were Richard McDonald,…

David Limond Murdoch was born in Ayr, Scotland, on 2 November 1825, the son of Agnes Todd and her husband, Alexander Murdoch, a lawyer. On 3 January 1848 at Glasgow David Murdoch married Eliza Murdoch. The couple…

Agnes Gilmour Brown was born at Killearn, Stirlingshire, Scotland, on 27 September 1893, the daughter of Elizabeth Gilmour and her husband, Walter Brown, a ploughman. Agnes was one of a large family and had only a…

Doris Adelaide Canham was born in Auckland on 21 August 1898, the eldest of five children of Lillian Henrietta Cornish and her husband, Ernest Edward (Ted) Canham, an English-born carter who worked on the Auckland…

William Haddow Pettit, who was born on 13 April 1885 in Nelson, New Zealand, was the son of Thomas Pettit, a grocer, Baptist, temperance advocate and (later) city councillor, and his wife, Isabella Haddow. William was…

A brewery baron for half a century, and the liquor trade's master tactician against the prohibition movement, Ernest Hyam Davis exerted enormous influence at the highest political levels. He combined this with a complex…

David Hendry was born the third of four children to Robert Hendry, a labourer, and his wife, Agnes Stevenson, on 24 November 1888 at Juniper Green, Midlothian, Scotland. His mother died when he was young. On leaving…

Albert Edward Cooke was born in Auckland on 5 October 1901, one of four sons and three daughters of Sarah Jane Peterson and her husband, Albert Edward Cooke, a hairdresser. The family moved to Hamilton about 1909, and…

Louis John Steele was born in England at Reigate, Surrey, on 30 January 1842, the son of Harriet Thompson and her husband, John Sisson Steele, a surgeon. His mother was said to have been a cousin of the French painter…

George Fowlds was born at Fenwick, Ayrshire, Scotland, on 15 September 1860. He was the youngest son of Agnes Craig and her husband, Matthew Fowlds, a Covenanter descendant and one of the last of the hand-loom weavers,…

Vernon Akitt Brown was born in West Derby, Liverpool, England, on 23 March 1905, the son of Thomas Brown, a surveyor in the British civil service, and his wife, Mary Augusta Brown. He attended Highgate School and the…

Mary Ann Parker was born in London, England, on 5 July 1817, the daughter of William Parker, an Anglican clergyman, and his wife, Ann. Very little is known about Mary's childhood and education, although she later…

Henry Gilbert Bennett (better known as Harry Scott Bennett) was born in Geelong, Victoria, Australia, on 1 June 1877, the son of a radical carpenter, James William Bennett, and his equally radical wife, Charlotte Mary…