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Youth Sonja Margaret Loveday Vile was born on 11 November 1923 in Wallaceville, Upper Hutt. Her mother, Gwladys Ilma Vile, was a state-registered nurse; her father was Gerald Dempsey, an army major from Cork, Ireland…

Helena Ruth Henderson was born on 12 June 1913 at Leithfield, Canterbury, the third of six children in a Catholic family. Her mother, Helena Jane Hayes, wrote prolifically; the Christchurch Press published many of her…

Anna Elizabeth Jerome Spencer, known to her friends as Bessie, was born in Napier on 16 November 1872, the third child and eldest daughter of Anna Heatly and her husband, William Isaac Spencer, a surgeon. Dr Spencer was…

Viva Bedlington was born at Auckland on 12 March 1893, the daughter of Elizabeth Jane Meldrum and her husband, Percy Bedlington, a surveyor. Her paternal grandfather, William Bedlington, had surveyed much of the…

Elizabeth Moore is said to have been born at Topsham, Devon, England, on 21 April 1826. She was the daughter of John Moore, a farm bailiff, and his wife, whose name is unknown. As a young woman she taught in the parish…

Agnes Gilmour Brown was born at Killearn, Stirlingshire, Scotland, on 27 September 1893, the daughter of Elizabeth Gilmour and her husband, Walter Brown, a ploughman. Agnes was one of a large family and had only a…

Emily Patricia Thompson was born in Dublin, Ireland, according to family sources on 24 June 1864. She was the daughter of Anna Thompson (later known as Anna Ray) and Edmund La Touche, a barrister. She trained as a…

Jane Elizabeth Francis was born in St John's Wood, London, England, probably in 1852 or 1853, the daughter of Harriett Francis and Adelbert Sevyney Frantz, a silk merchant. On 11 January 1866 Harriett Francis married…

Jane Coutts was born at Kaiapoi, New Zealand, on 18 May 1858 to Donald Coutts, a farmer, and his wife, Anne Mackay. On 26 December 1879 at Pātea she married John Thomson, a civil engineer. They were to have one son.…

Learmonth White Dalrymple was born to William Dalrymple and his wife, Janet (Jessie) Taylor, and was baptised at Coupar Angus, Angus, Scotland, on 21 July 1827. Her name at baptism was Larmonth Whyte Dalrymple. William…

Jane Elizabeth Runciman, born at Waterford, County Waterford, Ireland, on 4 June 1873, was the eldest child of Susan Propert Williams and her husband, William Edward Runciman, a grocer. Susan Runciman and four daughters…

Doris Clifton Jolly was born in Melbourne, Australia, on 10 July 1890, the daughter of Lucy Clifton Crouch and her husband, Alfred Jolly, a clergyman. Her family emigrated to New Zealand in 1894, settling first in…

Mary Manson Bain was born in Dunedin on 31 March 1887, the first of thirteen children of Alexander Manson Bain, a cabinetmaker, and his wife, Hanna Kiely. Her parents, he a Scottish Presbyterian and she an Irish…

Helen Lyster Nicol was born on 29 May 1854 in Edinburgh, Scotland, the sixth of 10 surviving children of Margaret Cairns Smith and her husband, David Nicol, head gardener at the Orphan Hospital in Edinburgh. When Helen…

Wharetutu's date of birth is unknown. She was born probably early in the nineteenth century, for the first of her children was born in 1827. She was the youngest of the eight children of Tāhuna and Tahupare, both of…

Sarah McAuley, the daughter of William McAuley, a farmer, and his wife, Elizabeth Atkin, was born in Londonderry, Ireland, probably in 1817 or 1818. She sailed to Canada with her family at the age of seven and grew up…

Pérrine Millais was born in London, England, on 8 February 1893, the daughter of Mary St Lawrence Hope-Vere and her husband, Everett Millais, a medical student at the time who died in 1897. Her paternal grandparents…

Mona Tracy was one of three Canterbury writers whose children's books, written in the 1920s, have stood the test of time. Unlike her two contemporaries, Esther Glen and Edith Howes, however, she wrote historical novels…

Frances Ann Carkeek was born on 18 June 1840 at Sydney, Australia. She was the daughter of Martha Piotti and her husband, Stephen Carkeek, commander of a revenue cutter. The family moved to Nelson, New Zealand, after…

Alice May Palmer was born on 6 August 1886 at Gordon, near Gore, New Zealand, the eldest of three children of Alice Shepard and her husband, Walter Henry Palmer, a clerk of court. In 1900 May boarded in Invercargill and…