Carl Sylvius Völkner was born in Kassel, Hesse, Germany, probably in 1819; his parents' names are unknown. Trained at the missionary college at Hamburg, Völkner was one of several missionaries sent to New Zealand by the…
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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…
George Augustus Selwyn was born on 5 April 1809 at Hampstead, England, the second son of William Selwyn, a noted constitutional lawyer, and his wife, Laetitia Frances Kynaston. His education began at a preparatory…
Images and media for 'letters' in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography (DNZB)
See 196 results in Te Ara Images & Media
See 196 results in Te Ara Images & Media
Mona Anderson, author of A river rules my life (1963) and nine other books, was one of New Zealand’s most popular and successful non-fiction authors of the 1960s and 1970s. Her books gave readers a window into life on a…
Jane Burns was baptised in the parish of Monkton, in Ayr, Scotland, on 24 February 1835, the second daughter of the Reverend Thomas Burns, early religious leader of the Free Church settlement in Otago, and his wife,…
George Fowlds was born at Fenwick, Ayrshire, Scotland, on 15 September 1860. He was the youngest son of Agnes Craig and her husband, Matthew Fowlds, a Covenanter descendant and one of the last of the hand-loom weavers,…
Eruera (Edward) Te Whiti o Rongomai Love was born on 18 May 1905 at the Top House, the Love family’s homestead in Waikawa Bay in the Marlborough Sounds. He was the second son of seven surviving children of Wī Hapi Pākau…
Roy Parsons sold books in Wellington for nearly 50 years, changing the intellectual climate of the city and opening the minds of several generations of New Zealanders to the world of books and ideas. The son of a…
The father of Te Waharoa was Tangimoana of Ngāti Hauā. His mother was Te Kahurangi. The brother of Tangimoana, Taipōrutu, was killed at the gateway of Te Kawau pā, near the mouth of the Tongapōrutu River, in the late…
Patricia Bartlett became a household name in 1970s New Zealand. Hers was a celebrity of an unusual kind: she stood against the tide of social change which promoted more relaxed attitudes to sexuality. A petite, neatly…
Kimble Bent, also known as Kimball Bent, was born in Eastport, Maine, USA, on 24 August 1837, the fourth of the seven children of John (or Waterman) Bent, a shipbuilder and carpenter, of Nova Scotian origin, and his…
Elsdon Best was born at Tawa Flat, New Zealand, on 30 June 1856, the sixth child of William Best, a farmer, and his wife, Hannah Haynes Nibbs. For the first nine years of his life he lived on the family farm, Grassleas…
Pei Te Hurinui Jones was the son of Daniel Lewis, a European storekeeper, and Paretekōrae Poutama of Ngāti Maniapoto. He was born on 9 September 1898 at Harataunga (Kennedys Bay) on the eastern coast of the Coromandel…
An experienced lawyer and judge, Justice Peter Mahon is best known for his report on the 1979 Erebus air crash, which killed 257 people. Mahon concluded that Air New Zealand’s inadequate safety processes led directly to…
Robert McNab was born at Dunragget farm, near Invercargill, New Zealand, on 1 October 1864. He was the eldest child of Janet McQueen and her husband, Alexander McNab, a runholder who served as a member of the Otago and…
Patrick Moran was born at Rathdrum, County Wicklow, Ireland, and baptised there on 24 May 1823. He was the son of Anne Doyle and her husband, Simon Moran, a farmer. Privately tutored until the age of 12, Patrick…
By his own account Hoani Nahe was born at the time the mission house at Parāwai (near Thames) was being built. This was probably in 1833 or 1834. His birthplace may have been at Te Poho, near the Kirikiri Stream. His…
John Larkins Cheese Richardson, the son of Robert Richardson and his wife, Mary Anne Romney, was born on 4 August 1810 in Bengal, India, and was baptised at Calcutta. His father, an East India Company civil servant,…
Herbert Otto Roth was born in Vienna, Austria, on 7 December 1917, the son of Therese Pepi Heilpern and her husband, Emil Roth, a railway engineer. He was called Otti during his years in Austria, but was later known as…
William Arthur Satchell was born on 1 February 1861 in London, England. He was the son of Hannah Mordey and her husband, Thomas Satchell, a civil servant who became surveyor general of the Inland Revenue. Thomas…