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Hāriata Whakatau Pītini-Morēra was the most important leader of Ngāti Kurī, a founding hapū of Ngāi Tahu in the South Island. She was born at Little River, Banks Peninsula, probably in 1871 or 1872, the daughter of…

Hugh Francis Carleton was the son of Francis Carleton and his wife, Charlotte Margaretta Montgomerie, of both Clare More, County Tipperary, and Greenfield, County Cork, Ireland. He is said to have been born on 3 July…

James Mackay Drummond was born in Thames, New Zealand, on 17 October 1869, the son of John Drummond, a surveyor, and his wife, Annie Mackay. He received his secondary education at Napier Grammar School, was apprenticed…

According to his own account William Walter Smith was born on 14 September 1852 at Hawick, Roxburghshire, Scotland. He was the son of Ellen Robson and her husband, Thomas Smith, a gamekeeper. From the age of 13 Smith…

Percy Leo Fowler was born at Litherland, Lancashire, England, on 14 December 1902, the son of Percy Nason Fowler, a clothing collector, and his wife, Christina O’Sullivan, a schoolteacher. In 1910 the family emigrated…

Barzillai Quaife was born at Lenham, Kent, England, on 29 December 1798, the son of Thomas Quaife, a farmer, and his wife, Amelia Austin. He married Maria Smith on 4 November 1834, in the parish of St Anne, Soho,…

Bruce Edward George Mason was born on 28 September 1921 at Wellington, the son of Howard George Mason, a New Zealand-born accountant, and his English wife, Anne March. Bruce’s family moved to the seaside suburb of…

Willi Fels was born on 17 April 1858 at Halle an der Weser, Brunswick, Germany, the eldest of four children of Heinemann Wilhelm Fels, a merchant, and his wife, Kätchen Hallenstein. He attended a Jewish school run by…

Margaret Orbell was one of New Zealand’s leading authorities on traditional Māori literature. She published prolifically, for both academic and general audiences, and her books achieved critical and popular success.…

William Herbert Guthrie-Smith was born William Herbert Smith in Scotland, at Helensburgh, Dunbartonshire, on 13 March 1862. He was the eldest child of John Guthrie Smith, a wealthy insurance broker, and his wife, Anne…

Edgar Fraser Stead was born in Christchurch on 22 October 1881, the son of George Gatonby Stead and his wife, Lucie Maria Wilkinson. His father was a grain and export merchant, president of the local chamber of commerce…

Walter Lawry Buller was born at the Wesleyan mission, Newark, at Pākanae, Hokianga, New Zealand, on 9 October 1838, the son of Jane Tonkin Martin and her husband, James Buller. He married Charlotte Mair at Whāngārei on…

Āperahama Taonui was the visionary leader of Ngāpuhi hapū Te Popoto of Utakura in the upper Hokianga, and a founder of the Kotahitanga movement, which evolved into the Māori parliaments of the 1890s. He was born, by his…

Alfred Augustus Grace was the youngest of 12 children of Agnes Fearon and her husband, Thomas Samuel Grace, a Church Missionary Society missionary who lived among the Māori of the Taupō region. Although Alfred was born…

Samuel Ironside is said to have been born on 9 September 1814 at Sheffield, Yorkshire, England, and was baptised on 16 October. He was the son of Mary Bradbury and her husband, Samuel Ironside, who had been successively…

Rachael Ngeungeu Te Irirangi Beamish was born at Waiariki, Mercer, Waikato, on 10 October 1893, the third of ten children of Richard Evanson Beamish, a settler and later master mariner, and his wife, Rangi Takotokino…

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,…

William Berry was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, probably in 1834 or 1835, the son of Margaret Garden and her husband, William Berry, a dyer. Around the age of 12 he was apprenticed in the composing room of the Scotsman…

Samuel Henry Drew was born in Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, on 17 November 1844, the son of Fanny Booker and her husband, Henry Drew, a watchmaker and jeweller. Soon after Samuel's birth the family moved to Ventnor on…

Ethel May Jacobson was born at Lyttelton, New Zealand, on 6 September 1877, the seventh of fourteen children of Margaret Dougherty and her husband, Howard Charles Jacobson, owner and editor of the Akaroa Mail, and Banks…