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Norman Richard Read was born at Portsmouth, England, on 13 August 1931, the son of Marjorie Ellen Luff and her husband, Richard Frederick Read, a Royal Navy stoker who later became a painter and decorator. He was…

William Spain was born at Cowes, Isle of Wight, on 14 March 1803, the fourth child of George Spain, merchant, and his wife, Sarah Rosendal. William was educated at Hyde Abbey School, Hampshire, trained as an attorney at…

Herbert Sutcliffe was born in Louth, Lincolnshire, England, on 19 October 1886, the son of Elizabeth Easter Allen and her husband, John James Sutcliffe, an engineer. A lifelong love of singing came from involvement in…

Hans Heinrich Suter, known in New Zealand as Henry Suter, was born on 9 March 1841 near Zürich, Switzerland. He was the son of Heinrich Suter, a silk manufacturer, and his wife, Susanna Mahler. After training in Zürich…

Hēnare Wiremu Taratoa was a leader of Ngāi Te Rangi of the Tauranga district. He was born about 1830; a photograph taken of him about 1860 shows a young man possibly in his 30s. His mother was Hera; his father's name is…

Wiremu Te Koti Te Rato, of Ngāti Kahungunu, was born in Wairarapa, probably about 1820. His father was probably Te Rato. His mother's name is not known. Te Koti Te Rato may have been one of a group of 100 women and…

John Bell Thomson was baptised on 5 February 1835 at Westminster, London, England. He was the oldest of four children born to Eliza Willcox and her husband, Adam Thomson, an architect and surveyor. John Bell Thomson…

Margaret Anderson was born in Manchester, England, on 11 February 1897, one of twelve children of James Anderson, a master bricklayer, and his wife, Margaret Blanshard. Her primary schooling in the outlying village of…

Leonard Henry (registered as Henry Leonard) Trent was born in Nelson on 14 April 1915, the son of Leonard Noel Trent, a dentist, and his wife, Irene Violet Everett. In 1919 the family moved to Takaka, where, three years…

Harold Jack Underwood, known as Jack, was born in Wellington on 24 January 1908, the son of Sydney Houghton Underwood, a builder, and his wife, Louise Maude Batley. After attending St Mark’s Church School and Wellington…

Terence Vaughan was born in Whangarei on 26 May 1915, the second child of Dorothy Helen Gillespie and her husband, Sydney Maurice Vaughan, a merchant. After the family’s move to a Canterbury farm and later to…

Edward Wakefield, registered as Felix Edward, was born in Launceston, Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania), on 22 May 1845, the son of Eliza Felicie Bailli and her husband, Felix Wakefield, a surveyor and engineer. After the…

Charlotte Eliot Warburton was born in Palmerston North on 14 March 1883, the eldest of five children of English parents George Hartopp Eliot Warburton, a solicitor, and his wife, Sophia Isabella Budd. The Warburtons…

Born in New Plymouth on 24 February 1918, Daniel Anthony Watkins was the fifth child and third son of Augustus Edward Watkins, a self-employed accountant, and his wife, Alice Mary Kyngdon. He attended West End School…

Apprenticed as a printer to his father's firm at about the age of 14, for more than 70 years Bertie Ernest Hawkes Whitcombe was associated with Whitcombe and Tombs Limited, which for most of that time dominated…

According to family information Jane Maria Richmond (known as Maria) was born at St Pancras, London, England, on 15 September 1824, the third child and only surviving daughter of Christopher Richmond, barrister of the…

Alfred Henry Burton was the eldest of four sons of John Burton and his wife, Martha Neal. He was born at Leicester, Leicestershire, England, probably sometime between 1833 and 1835. John Burton had founded the firm of…

George Clarke was born in Wymondham, Norfolk, England, on 27 January 1798. His parents were Mary Clarke and her husband, William Clarke, a gunsmith and builder. Between the ages of 11 and 20 he learnt carpentry and…

Leonard Charles Huia Lye was born on 5 July 1901 in Christchurch. A year earlier the marriage of his parents, Rose Ann Cole and Harry Lye, a hairdresser, had caused conflict between his father’s Anglican and his mother’…

The man who more than anyone else came to symbolise Federated Farmers was born in Dunedin on 29 December 1902. Alexander Paterson O’Shea was the youngest of 10 children of John O’Shea, a law clerk, and his wife, Alice…