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Frank Oswald Victor Acheson was born on 27 June 1887 at Riverton, Southland, the youngest of nine children of Robert Acheson, a merchant, and his wife, Annie Sinclair Allan. He was educated at Riverton school and…

Margaret Cooper was baptised on 2 April 1807 at Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. She was the daughter of Elizabeth Ross and her husband, Robert Cooper, a farmer. On 3 July 1830 she married Robert Forbes at Pitsligo…

Wiremu Nēra (William Naylor) Ngātai introduced Christianity to South Taranaki in the late 1830s. Although probably born in Taranaki, his parents are not known. In the 1820s he was taken by Ngāpuhi raiders to Hokianga,…

William George Niccoll Searancke, later known as William Nicholas Searancke, was baptised on 11 April 1817 at St Albans Abbey, Hertfordshire, England. He was the son of Harriet Smith and her husband, Francis Searancke,…

In 1902 Wiremu Hoani Taua (also known as William Johnson or Johnston) was appointed the first Māori head teacher of a native school and, almost certainly, of any Department of Education primary school. He was to lead…

J.C. Sturm, also known as Te Kare Papuni and Jacquie Baxter, was a pioneering writer of poetry and short stories. Long overshadowed by her first husband, the poet James K. Baxter, Jacquie emerged in later life as a…

Hōri Kerei Taiaroa was born at Ōtākou, on the Otago peninsula, probably in the 1830s or early 1840s. His father was the prominent Ngāi Tahu chief Te Mātenga Taiaroa, of Ngāi Te Ruahikihiki, and his mother was Mawera of…

Michael King was New Zealand’s most popular late twentieth-century historian. His best work combined the research-based scholarship of a historian with the fluent accessible style of a journalist. His output was…

Jean Lampila, known to the Māori as Hone Rapira, and also known as John Lampila, was born in Mazamet, southern France, on 24 October 1808. After rising to sergeant in the French army, and seeing service in Greece, he…

Joseph (Hōhepa) Fluerty was born at Arahura, near Greymouth, on 1 May 1903 to Toihi Te Koeti of Poutini Ngāi Tahu and Robert Fluerty, a goldminer of European and Ngāi Tahu ancestry. His great-grandfather, Tutoko, was…

William Francis MacWilliams, born McWilliams and better known as Daldy MacWilliams, was born at Papakura, south of Auckland, New Zealand, on 23 July 1860. He was one of eight children of Martha Letitia Tullkin and her…

Tini Pana (Jane Burns) was born at Moeraki, North Otago, probably in 1846 or 1847. She was the third of four children of Pukio Iwa, of Ngāi Tuahuriri hapū of Ngāi Tahu (descendants of Tautahi), and Richard Burns (Riki…

Charles Heaphy was born in London, England, probably in 1820, the youngest of five children. His father, Thomas Heaphy, was a professional watercolourist and miniaturist of considerable social prominence. Charles's…

Richard Taylor was born at Letwell, Yorkshire, England, on 21 March 1805, one of four children of Richard Taylor and his wife, Catherine Spencer. He was baptised two days later, in the neighbouring parish of Throapham.…

William Leonard Williams, known as Leonard Williams to Pākehā and as Mita Rēnata to Māori, was born at Paihia, Bay of Islands, New Zealand, on 22 July 1829. He was the third child and eldest son of Jane Nelson and her…

George Eric Oakes Ramsden was born in Martinborough, Wairarapa, on 1 August 1898, the eldest of three children of Henry Oakes Ramsden, an Englishman, and his New Zealand-born wife, Sophia Jane Harris. Henry Ramsden was…

Nene was born probably in the 1780s. He was the second son of Tapua, leader and tohunga of Ngāti Hao of Hokianga, and the younger brother of Patuone, the inheritor of their father's mana. By descent and marriage this…

Charles Shelford, better known as Charlie, was born on 21 August 1920 in Te Kaha, Bay of Plenty, to Thomas George Shelford, a labourer, and his wife, Marauahatea Te Ōwaina Kirikiri. Both his parents had previously been…

Edward Joshua Riddiford was born on 7 August 1842 at the Hutt, Wellington, the third of 12 children of Harriot Stone and her husband, Daniel Riddiford, an emigration agent in the New Zealand Company. Around 1845 the…

Bishop Wiremu Nētana Pānapa, known affectionately as Barney, was the second bishop of Aotearoa. He was born in Ahikiwi, north of Dargaville, on 7 June 1898. Pānapa’s grandfather, Pānapa Hōhāpata, of Ngāti Ruanui, was…