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Catherine McKay was born probably at Putataka, Waikato Heads, New Zealand, in 1842, the third child of John Horton McKay, a storekeeper, and Irihapeti, whose tribal connections were with Waikato and Ngāti Pūkeko of…

Alison Edith Hilda Craig was born on 22 January 1903 at Waitekauri on the Coromandel Peninsula, the eldest of six children of George Craig, a physician and surgeon, and his wife, Hilda Johnstone Gudgeon. Alison was the…

William Mackenzie Fraser was born at Auckland on 6 April 1878, the son of Simon Fraser, a farmer, and his wife, Margaret Ann McKenzie. His father, who was attributed with finding gold at Taieri, Otago, was born in…

Francis (Frank) Bertrand Jolly was born on 26 January 1865 at London, Ontario, Canada, the eldest child of English parents Thomas Jolly, a farmer, and his wife, Mary Ridout Kelly. After returning briefly to England the…

Vida Eliza Berry was born on 8 February 1893 in Waimangaroa, on the West Coast, the daughter of Bertha Louisa Harford and her husband, John Morley Berry, a miner. She attended Nelson College for Girls. Vida married…

Lavinia Jane Kelsey was born in South Hackney, London, England, on 23 February 1856, one of three children of Lavinia Owen and her husband, Thomas Kelsey, a braid manufacturer. Her mother died when she was three and her…

Harold David London was born at Kimbolton, Manawatu, on 28 August 1906, the son of Catherine Waugh and her husband, Charles London, a sheepfarmer. Harold attended Valley Road School in Kimbolton (1913–20) and belonged…

Emmet Charles McHardy was born at Pīhama, Taranaki, on 27 June 1904, the third of four children of John McHardy, a Scottish-born farmer, and his wife, Mary Frances O’Reilly, the daughter of Irish hotel-keepers. It was…

John James North was born at Dukinfield, Cheshire, England, on 26 July 1871, the son of Emma Heritage and her husband, Alfred North, a Baptist minister. The family settled in Dunedin, New Zealand, in 1882 when Alfred…

Jim Shum, whose Chinese name was Sham Tseung Chim, was baptised James by the Reverend Alexander Don. Shum had chosen the name Jim because it sounded like his Chinese name, Chim. Both Don and another missionary, G. H.…

Kazuyuki Kiyohei Tsukigawa was born on 9 January 1874 on the island of Konoura-mura Uku in the Nagasaki prefecture of Japan, the son of Kazuye Tsukigawa and his wife, Fuzi Kanki. At 15 or 16 he began to work for his…

Ruth Webb, born on 8 February 1901 in Rotorua, was the youngest of five children of Mary Wilson and her husband, Seth Webb, a blacksmith. In 1908 the family moved to Cambridge, where Ruth was educated at the local…

Harry Scott was a psychology educator and researcher whose work on the effects of isolation evolved from his own experiences as an imprisoned conscientious objector during the Second World War. He was a significant…

Catherine Wilson Malcolm was born in Liverpool, Lancashire, England, probably on 10 March 1847, the daughter of Scots parents Jemima Crawford Souter and her husband, Andrew Wilson Malcolm, a clerk. She was called…

John Robert Godley, founder of the Canterbury settlement, is said to have been born in Dublin, Ireland, on 29 May 1814, the eldest son of John Godley, a prosperous landowner of Killegar and his wife, Katharine Daly. On…

Pūrakau Maika was the son of Maika Pūrakau, a pro-King movement chief of Hurunuiorangi pā at the junction of the Tauheru and Ruamāhanga rivers. His father was of Ngāti Hikarāhui hapū, which combined lines of descent…

Mary Muller  was one of the earliest advocates for women’s rights in New Zealand. Drawing on her own experiences of a disrupted childhood, a failed marriage and the loss of property, she developed a critique of…

Samuel Duncan Parnell, a carpenter and joiner by trade, initiated the eight hour working day in Wellington. He is said to have been born in London, England, on 19 February 1810, the son of Joan Duncan and her husband,…

Te Whiwhi, sometimes called Te Whiwhi-o-te-rangi, was the son of Te Rangitopeora, the sister of Te Rangihaeata, a woman who held a foremost place among Ngāti Toa and Ngāti Raukawa; she was the daughter of Waitohi, Te…

Leonard John Wild was born at Oraki, Southland, on 28 October 1889, the son of Florence Muggleton and her husband, Herbert Arthur Wild, a teacher. He attended Southland Boys' High School, where he was inducted into…