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During the 1920s the citizens of Auckland benefited from a number of munificent bequests given by Marianne Smith. An enigmatic and very private person, she was unusual in that unlike most wealthy women of the time she…

Wī Whitu was born on 4 December 1908 at Maungapōhatu, at the height of Rua Kēnana’s religious leadership there. His parents were Whitu Te Rangimakā (Makā) Tawa (or Kanuehi) of Hāmua, a Tūhoe hapū in Ruātoki, and his…

James Nelson Williams was born at Waimate mission station inland from the Bay of Islands, New Zealand, probably on 22 August 1837, the third son of Jane Nelson and her husband, William Williams, a missionary and later…

Early life Bill Rowling was born in Motueka in the Nelson district on 15 September 1927. He was the youngest of four children born to Arthur Rowling, an orchardist, and his wife, Agnes Rubina Davy. He was christened…

Harry Scott was a psychology educator and researcher whose work on the effects of isolation evolved from his own experiences as an imprisoned conscientious objector during the Second World War. He was a significant…

Leslie Cecil Lloyd Averill was born in the vicarage of St Michael and All Angels, Christchurch, on 25 March 1897, the son of Alfred Walter Averill and his wife, Mary Weir. His father, the vicar, was later archbishop and…

Harry Warner Farnall was born at Burley Park, Hampshire, England, on 18 December 1838, the son of Mary Warner and her husband, George Rooke Farnall, a wealthy landowner and justice of the peace. Details of his early…

James Fletcher arrived in New Zealand in 1908 with a bag of tools, a few pounds in his pocket and an unflagging optimism that would help make him one of New Zealand’s most influential industrialists. He was born in…

Herman Harry Jekeles was born at Dubauti, in the district of Cernauti, Romania (now Chernovtsy, Ukraine), on 5 August 1908. He was the youngest of five children of Jewish parents Mina Rosa Croon (Corne) and her husband…

Heinrich Lang was born in Vienna, Austria, on 3 March 1919, one of two sons of Robert Lang, a hardware manufacturer, and his wife, Anna Schwitzer. His parents subsequently divorced and in 1935 his mother married Ernst…

John (Jack) Ormond was born at Māhia on 18 December 1891; he was commonly known as Tiaki Ōmana. Tiaki was the fourth child of George Canning Ormond, a sheepfarmer, and his wife, Maraea Kiwiwharekete of Ngāti Kahungunu.…

Bedrich (later known as Frederick) Turnovsky was born in Prague, then part of the Austro-Hungarian empire, on 28 December 1916, the second of two sons of Max Turnovsky, a manufacturing and retail jeweller, and his wife…

Rona Bailey was one of the most important figures on the radical left in twentieth-century New Zealand. She was a communist and an organiser of protest movements, particularly against the Vietnam War, apartheid and…

James Keir Baxter was born on 29 June 1926 at Nurse Ross’s maternity home, Dunedin, the second son of Archibald McColl Learmond Baxter, an Otago farmer, and his wife, Millicent Amiel Macmillan Brown. His brother,…

William Hobson was born in Waterford, Ireland, on 26 September 1792, the third of five sons of Samuel Hobson, a barrister, and his wife, Martha Jones. William joined the Royal Navy before his 11th birthday, signing on…

Nicholas Moore was a well-known figure in Masterton for 55 years and was the oldest priest in New Zealand when he died in 1985 at the age of 98. He was born in Kilmoganny, County Kilkenny, Ireland, on 16 September 1887…

Arthur Samuel Atkinson was born at Hurworth, Durham, England, on 20 October 1833, the eighth of 13 children of Elizabeth Smith and her husband, John Atkinson, architect and stonemason. The family settled at Frindsbury,…

Paul Holmes was New Zealand’s best-known and most influential late twentieth-century broadcaster, straddling the line between serious current affairs presenter and entertainer. He succeeded in the three mass media…

William Brown was born probably in Dundee, Angus, Scotland, in 1809 or 1810. After studying law he was admitted as a Writer to the Signet. He did not practise for long in his homeland. In 1839 he and his wife, Jessie…

James and Denis Joseph Cummings, together with their sister Catherine and brother Timothy, were members of the New Zealand Police Force during the first half of the twentieth century. They were four of the twelve…