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David (also known as Darby) Pretty was born at Okete, near Raglan, New Zealand, on 20 October 1878, the son of Joseph Pretty, a farmer, and his wife, Joanna Kescel. His father had been a member of the Waikato Militia…

Hannah Retter was born two months before the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi and died as the treaty's centennial was being celebrated. Hers was one of a number of families created along Wellington's west coast by…

Elizabeth Mary Brittan, known as Mary Brittan, was born into an Anglican medical family in Castleton, near Sherborne, Dorset, England, on 30 March 1845. After her mother, Elizabeth Mary Chandler, died in 1849, her…

Oswold Counsell Stephens was the proprietor of the Handcraft Pottery workshop in Dunedin, which made a major contribution to the studio pottery movement in New Zealand. The son of Mary Duke and her husband, John…

George Albert Tuck was born at Cambridge, New Zealand, on 13 February 1884, the son of Charles Tuck, an accountant, and his wife, Mary Josephine Gallagher. He attended school in Cambridge and, later, Te Aroha. Although…

Heinrich Franz Vosseler, generally known as Henry or Harry, was born on 18 October 1885 in Wellington, the son of German parents George Vosseler, a baker, and his second wife, Anna Marie Therese Wulff, a schoolteacher.…

Nugent Herrmann Welch was born at Akaroa on 30 July 1881, the third child and second son of Isabel Nugent and her husband, Joseph Sandell Welch, an assistant surveyor. In 1893 Joseph accepted a position as senior…

Herbert Horatio Spencer Westmacott, known as Spencer, was born in Christchurch, New Zealand, on 10 November 1885, to a middle-class family of limited means. His mother, Ada Janet Depree, was of Huguenot descent. She had…

Elsie Hamer Fielden was born on 20 December 1922 at Waihou, near Te Aroha, Waikato, the only child of Nora Hamer and her husband, Alfred James Fielden, a decorator. In her early years the family moved to Whakatane,…

John Ballance was born at Ballypitmave, near Glenavy in County Antrim, Ireland, into a comfortably off but not prosperous family. His date of birth is said to have been 27 March 1839; he was baptised on 7 April that…

Francis Dillon Bell, usually called Dillon, is said to have been born in France on 8 October 1822. His father, Edward Bell, was a merchant and the British consul at Bordeaux. His mother, Frances, was the daughter of an…

Isaac Earl Featherston was born at Newcastle upon Tyne, England, on 21 March 1813, the son of Thomas Featherston, a wealthy retail grocer and his wife, Jane Earl. He was educated at a private school at Tamworth and at…

William Belcher was born in London, England, probably in 1859 or 1860, the son of Mary Ann Bull and her husband, William John Belcher, an engineer. Little is known of his early years before he went to sea in 1872. In…

Manuera Benjamin Rīwai Couch (or Rīwai-Couch) was known throughout his life, and by his own preference, as Ben Couch. He was born at Lyttelton on 27 June 1925, the first of eight children of a farmer, George Manning…

William Lee Rees was born probably on 16 December 1836 at Bristol, England, the son of James Rees, a surgeon, and his wife, Elizabeth Pocock. Rees's father died when he was young, and he was brought up by his mother and…

Kenneth Stopford Avery was born in Dunedin on 24 June 1922 to George Frederick Avery, a commercial traveller, and his wife, Dorothy Alice Stopford. He was educated at High Street School in Dunedin before the family…

Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Baucke, known as William, was born on Chatham Island on 7 July 1848. He was the second of nine children of Johann Heinrich Christoph Baucke and his wife, Maria Müller. Baucke's father was one of…

Andrew McRae Davidson had a distinguished teaching career in Otago and helped shape the social security legislation that was implemented in New Zealand after 1938. Born in Mornington, Dunedin, on 10 November 1894, he…

Ellen Elizabeth Aley was born in Auckland on 13 September 1869 to Ellen Beck and her husband, Alfred Aley, a watchmaker and jeweller. Nothing else is known of Nellie’s life until she married James Ferner, a bill poster…

Eily Elaine Gurr was born in Thorndon, Wellington, on 8 November 1896. She was the only child of Norman Leslie Gurr, an insurance agent, who was later a manager with the New Zealand Insurance Company, and his wife, Eily…