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John Ross Marshall was born in Wellington on 5 March 1912, the son of Allan Marshall, a clerk, and his wife, Florence May Ross. His father was from Perthshire, and his mother’s family had also originally come from…

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…

Ralph Hōtere was one of New Zealand’s most important late twentieth-century artists. He began as a painter with a strong drawing practice, later moving into sculpture and installation. His work reflected an abstract…

Hoani Te Heuheu Tūkino, sometimes known as Hoani Te Rerehau or John Heuheu, was the youngest of five children of Tūreiti Te Heuheu Tūkino V of Ngāti Tūwharetoa and his wife, Te Rerehau Kahotea (also known as Mere Te Iwa…

Rēweti Tūhorouta Kōhere was born on 11 April 1871 at Orutua, Horoera, near East Cape. He was the first of five children of Hone Hiki Kōhere and Henarata Peretō, the daughter of Umutahi, who belonged to Te Whanau-a-…

Tahupōtiki Wiremu Rātana was the founder of a Māori religious movement which, in the late 1920s, also became a major political movement. He was the latest in a line of prophetic descent which included Te Ua Haumēne,…

Early life Thomas Allen Monro Curnow (known as Allen) was born in Timaru on 17 June 1911, the second of three sons of Tremayne Monro Curnow, an Anglican clergyman, and his wife, Jessamine Towler Gambling. On his…

Murray Ball created the phenomenally successful ‘Footrot Flats’ cartoon strip, which appeared in more than 120 newspapers worldwide during the 1980s and 1990s and spawned a stage musical, a movie and a wide array of…

Peter Fraser was born on 28 August 1884 at the highland village of Fearn, Ross-shire, Scotland, the son of Donald Fraser, a master shoemaker, and his wife, Isabella McLeod. Peter's attendance at the local school was…