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Iwikau, the second surviving son of Herea, the first Te Heuheu Tūkino, and the child of Rangiaho, of Ngāti Maniapoto, was born late in the eighteenth century. Like his older brother, Mananui, he became a great warrior,…

John Turnbull Thomson is said to have been born on 10 August 1821 at Glororum farm, near Bamburgh, Northumberland, England, and was baptised on 28 September at Warenford. He was a son of Alexander Thomson and his wife,…

Francis (Frank) Morphet Twisleton was born at Settle in Yorkshire, England, on 17 February 1873. He was the son of Thomas Twisleton, a farmer and businessman, and his wife, Mary Ann Morphet. After attending Giggleswick…

Born in London, England, on 18 January 1857, Henry Francis Wigram was the son of a barrister, William Knox Wigram, and his wife, Mary Ann Pomeroy, daughter of the fifth Viscount Harberton. After attending Harrow School…

Anthony Frederick Wilding (registered Frederick Anthony) was born at Opawa, Christchurch, New Zealand, on 31 October 1883, the second of five children of Julia Anthony and her husband, Frederick Wilding, a solicitor.…

Te Puea Hērangi was born at Whatiwhatihoe, near Pirongia, on 9 November 1883. Her mother was Tiahuia, daughter of Tāwhiao Te Wherowhero of Ngāti Mahuta, the second Māori King, and his senior wife, Hera. Her father was…

John Cawte Beaglehole was born in his parents’ house in Hopper Street, Wellington, on 13 June 1901, the second of four sons of Jane Butler and her husband, David Ernest Beaglehole. David was a serious-minded young man…

Bruce Beetham was one of New Zealand’s best-known politicians during the 1970s and early 1980s. Under his leadership the New Zealand Social Credit Political League mounted a sustained but ultimately unsuccessful third-…

William Cargill was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on 28 August 1784, the son of James Cargill and his wife, Marrion Jamieson. His father, who died of chronic alcoholism when William was 15, was a lawyer of some standing…

Leonard Cockayne, New Zealand's greatest botanist and a founder of modern science in New Zealand, was born at Norton Lees, near Sheffield, England, on 7 April 1855. He was the youngest of seven children of Mary Shepherd…

Mavis Davidson was a significant New Zealand mountaineer, a field ecologist and an international authority on sika deer. She made several notable ascents, leading the first all-women ascent of Aoraki/Mount Cook in 1953…

Alfred Domett is said to have been born on 20 May 1811 at Camberwell Grove, Surrey, England, and was baptised on 4 November 1812 at Bermondsey. His father, Nathaniel Domett, was a ship owner of naval and merchant…

Roly Earp was a pioneer kiwifruit orchardist of the 1960s and 1970s, and an influential advocate for grower control. He supported and encouraged the growth of the industry through the development of equipment to assist…

Paraire Karaka Paikea was the great-grandson of Paikea Te Hekeua, a prominent chief of Te Uri-o-Hau and Ngāti Whatua. His father was Karaka Eramiha Paikea, and his mother was Tuhi Harirū Maihi, daughter of Wereti and…

Hōne Riiwi Tōia was born probably sometime between 1858 and 1860 at Waimate North in the Bay of Islands. His grandfather was a Jewish trader called Levy (Riiwi), who, in different family traditions, jumped ship at…

Joan Wiffen was a self-taught palaeontologist who greatly advanced knowledge of fossil reptiles in New Zealand. Wiffen, who described herself as ‘a rank amateur, a Hawkes Bay housewife in fact, with no scientific…

Mountford Tosswill Woollaston was born at Toko, Stratford, on 11 April 1910, and raised with four brothers on a dairy farm near Huinga in the Taranaki backblocks. He was the son of John Reginald Woollaston, a…

William Blaxland Benham was born in Isleworth, Middlesex, England, on 29 March 1860, the sixth of seven children of Ebenezer (Edward) Benham and his wife, Mary Ann Shoppee. Ebenezer was a prosperous solicitor and the…

William Darby Brind was born in England, the eldest child of William Brind and his wife, Elizabeth. According to family information he was born in 1794. He was baptised on 28 July that year at St Philip's parish,…

Ida Harriet Carey was born at Taonui, near Feilding, on 3 October 1891, the daughter of Elizabeth Keeble and her husband, Richard Octavius Egerton Carey, a farmer. Although she painted from a young age, her first formal…