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Rachael Ngeungeu Te Irirangi Beamish was born at Waiariki, Mercer, Waikato, on 10 October 1893, the third of ten children of Richard Evanson Beamish, a settler and later master mariner, and his wife, Rangi Takotokino…

Muriel Emma Bell was born on 4 January 1898 at Murchison, the daughter of Thomas Bell, a farmer, and his wife, Eliza Sheat. She began her education at Murchison School, where she was a reluctant pupil. Her childhood was…

Octavius Hadfield, the 10th child and youngest son of Joseph Hadfield, silk merchant, and his wife, Amelia Caroline White, was born at Bonchurch, Isle of Wight, England, and was baptised on 6 November 1814. His marriage…

David Alexander Cecil Low earned world fame, and the particular hatred of Adolf Hitler, in the years leading up to the Second World War for his cartoons attacking European fascism and the Nazi regime. Born in Dunedin on…

Leonard Charles Huia Lye was born on 5 July 1901 in Christchurch. A year earlier the marriage of his parents, Rose Ann Cole and Harry Lye, a hairdresser, had caused conflict between his father’s Anglican and his mother’…

Nireaha Tāmaki was born at Te Pākawau on the Manawatū River probably between 1835 and 1837. His father was Matiu Tāmaki, a descendant of high rank of Rangitāne and Hāmua; Nireaha was sometimes known as Nireaha Matiu.…

Dubbed an educational ‘saboteur’ by poet James K. Baxter, Elwyn Richardson was an educator who helped change the practice of teaching and learning in New Zealand schools in the second half of the twentieth century.1 He…

Taiaroa, the son of Kōrako and Wharerauaruhe, belonged to Ngāi Te Ruahikihiki and Ngāti Moki hapū of Ngāi Tahu, both of them centred on Taumutu, at the southern end of Waihora (Lake Ellesmere). His ancestor, Te…

Te Horetā, also known as Te Taniwha, was a leader of Ngāti Whanaunga, one of the Marutūāhu confederation of Hauraki Gulf and Coromandel Peninsula tribes. The names of his parents are not recorded. He may have been born…

From childhood, Augusta Wallace’s life was entwined with the law. She was the daughter, wife and mother of lawyers, had her own law practice, and became New Zealand’s first female district court judge in 1975. Despite…

According to family information William Williams was born at Plumtre House, Nottingham, England, on 18 July 1800, the ninth and youngest child of Mary Marsh and her husband, Thomas Williams. He was baptised on 30…

John Anderson, son of Jean Harper and her husband, Alexander Anderson, a ploughman, was born on 7 November 1820 and baptised at Inveresk, near Edinburgh, Scotland. After an apprenticeship with a blacksmith, John was…

A pioneering exponent of the New Zealand comic vernacular yarn in his 'Me and Gus' and other stories, Frank Sheldon Anthony was born at Matawhero, near Gisborne, on 13 December 1891, the son of Frank Sheldon Anthony and…

Horace Henry Ayres (Ayers), better known as Harry Herbert Ayres, was born on 31 July 1912 in Christchurch, the son of Ellen Matthews and her husband, Henry Ayres, a gardener, carpenter and plasterer. Harry attended…

Alfred Charles Barker was born in Hackney, London, England, on 5 January 1819, the fifth child and fourth son of Joseph Gibbs Barker and his wife, Sarah Pritchett Bousfield. Barker was descended from a fifteenth century…

Richard (Dicky) Barrett's date and place of birth, and his parents' names, are unknown. It is possible that he was born in Durham or London, in England. His colourful, readable journal and his connection in Durham with…

William Jackson Barry was born in 1819 in Melbourn, Cambridgeshire, England. His parents' names are unknown. He arrived in Sydney, Australia, in 1828, possibly as a juvenile convict, and embarked on a lifetime of…

Rosetta Lulah Leavy was born in July 1871 at San Francisco, USA, the daughter of Francesca Simon and her husband, Charles Maurice Leavy, a civil service commissioner for the state of California. Rosetta received a…

John Beck was born on 22 January 1883 at Kirkcudbright, Scotland, the son of Thomas Fazakerly Beck, a railway guard, and his wife, Margaret Darsie Smith. The family emigrated to New Zealand in 1886 and settled in Otago…

Philip William Blakeley was born in Lower Hutt on 3 April 1915, the son of George Philip Wilson Blakeley and his wife, Winifred Mary Overton. His father was an electrician at the meatworks in Petone and (later) in…