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Alexander Lawrence Herdman was born in Dunedin, New Zealand, on 17 July 1869 to Emma Hepburn Brown and her husband, Alexander Herdman, an accountant. He was educated at Otago Boys' High School from 1883 to 1885. He then…

Theophilus Cooper was born on 15 November 1850 at Newington, Surrey, England, the son of Susannah Bugby and her husband, Theophilus Cooper, a mercantile clerk. In 1862 the Cooper family travelled to New Zealand on the…

Alexander Mackay was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, probably on 11 May 1833. His father was Alexander Mackay, a lawyer; his mother's name is unknown. At the age of five he left Scotland to attend school at Southsea, in…

Jimmy James, the man who taught thousands of Wellingtonians the art of ballroom dancing, was born Dimitrios Skafidas in Athens, Greece, on 15 February 1915. He was one of six children of Nickolai Skafidas, a shoemaker,…

Robert Reid Parris, son of William and Agnes Parris, was baptised on 16 May 1816 at Chard, Somerset, England. His forebears, of French protestant origin, had settled in Dorset in the sixteenth century; his father was a…

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…

Henry Hubert Ostler was born at Ben Ohau station near Timaru, South Canterbury, on 2 July 1876, the third child and only son of Emma Brignell Roberts and her husband, William Henry Ostler, the station proprietor. After…

Wilfrid Joseph Sim was born in Dunedin on 3 November 1890, the son of William Alexander Sim and his wife, Frances Mary Walters. His father was a solicitor and later became a judge of the Court of Arbitration and the…

William John Larkin (frequently called Larkins in newspaper accounts) is said have been born in Galway, Ireland; the date of his birth and his parents' names are unknown. A supposed relationship to Michael Larkin, one…

Little is known of the early life of John Manning. He was educated in New York; his family had probably migrated to the United States from Ireland when he was a child. As a young man, he went to the Victorian goldfields…

John McIndoe was born at Rothesay, on the isle of Bute, Scotland, on 29 November 1858. He was the son of Elizabeth Gillies and her husband, James McIndoe, a grain merchant. Both the McIndoe and Gillies families had…

Emma Brignell Roberts was born in Westham, Essex, England, probably in 1848 or 1849, the daughter of Mary Griffith and her husband, Thomas Roberts, a clergyman. In 1852 her parents emigrated to Melbourne, Australia,…

Richard Burgess, also known as Richard Hill, was born in the West End of London, England, on 14 February 1829, the illegitimate son of a lady's maid and 'some one connected with the Horse-guards'. When his father…

Ernest Bowyer Corbett was born on 7 May 1898 to William Corbett, a labourer, and his wife, Annie Bowyer, at Ōkato, Taranaki, where his parents later farmed. He attended Puniho Native School for four years and later…

Robert Brown, also known as Robert Brown tertius, was born in Glasgow, Scotland, probably between 1821 and 1824, the son of Mary Miller and her husband, George Brown, a bootmaker. Nothing is known of his early life or…

Una Isabel Carter was born on 20 August 1890 at Upper Tutaenui, near Marton, New Zealand, the daughter of Selina Brown and her husband, William Alfred Carter, a farmer. Little is known of Una's early life but it is said…

Thomas Denniston was born at Greenock, Renfrewshire, Scotland, on 28 March 1821, the son of John Denniston, a merchant, and his wife, Jean Fairrie. Thomas's parents died when he was young, and he was brought up by an…

William O'Leary, known as Arawata Bill, was born at Tuapeka, New Zealand, on 28 October 1865, the second child in a family of eight. His father, Timothy O'Leary, had emigrated from Prince Edward Island when gold was…

Henry Poingdestre, the fourth son of five children, was baptised at the parish church in St Helier, on the island of Jersey, on 3 August 1832. He was a descendant of Geoffrey and Raoul Poingdestre, who owned land on the…

James Wright was born at Fenton, Staffordshire, England, on 11 April 1819, the son of Eleanor Bennet and her husband, William Wright, an engraver. On 9 March 1841, at Middlesbrough, Yorkshire, he married Mary Ann Tams.…