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John Lundon was a not atypical 'public man' in mid nineteenth century New Zealand, a society where political forms and commercial relationships could be worked to personal advantage by those with a sharp eye for the…

John Hector Luxford was born at Palmerston North on 28 May 1890 to William Lewis Luxford, a prosperous timber merchant, and his wife, Isabella Eleanor Carolina Gonzales. He attended schools in Palmerston North and…

Margaret Louisa Kendall was born on 19 June 1895 in Headingley, Leeds, England, to Alfred Sunderland Kendall, a linen draper, and his wife, Fannie Gibson. She was educated at a Quaker school and the University of St…

James Ingram McDonald was born on 11 June 1865 at Tokomairiro, Otago, New Zealand, the son of Donald McDonald, a ploughman, and his wife, Margaret Ingram. After primary school James attended Otago Boys' High School…

Years before the establishment of major hand-loom weaving guilds in New Zealand, two sisters, Sybil Mary and Josephine Mulvany, were operating a successful weaving business in Auckland. They helped revitalise the craft…

Stuart Newall (baptised as Stewart) was born in the parish of Durrisdeer, Dumfriesshire, Scotland, on 9 May 1843, the son of Thomas Newall, a tailor, and his wife, Anne Dalziel. Nothing is known of his early life. In…

Henry Hubert Ostler was born at Ben Ohau station near Timaru, South Canterbury, on 2 July 1876, the third child and only son of Emma Brignell Roberts and her husband, William Henry Ostler, the station proprietor. After…

William Arthur Greener Penlington was born on 8 October 1890 at Akaroa, Banks Peninsula, where his grandfather, a sawmiller, had settled in the late 1850s. The son of compositor William Penlington and his English-born…

Ralph O’Reilly Piddington was born on 19 February 1906 in Sydney, Australia, the son of Albert Bathurst Piddington, a barrister and later judge, and his wife, Marion Louisa O’Reilly, a eugenist writer and lecturer. He…

Ernst Anton Plischke was a key figure in the introduction of modernism into Wellington architecture in the period following the Second World War. Born in Klosterneuberg, a suburb of Vienna, on 26 June 1903, he was the…

Thomas Simson Pratt is said to have been born in 1797, the son of Captain James Pratt and his wife, Anne Simson. Probably in 1827 he married Frances Agnes Cooper. The places of his birth and marriage are unknown. Thomas…

The most famous of the women of Ngāti Tūwharetoa and Ngāti Maniapoto in the nineteenth century was undoubtedly Rihi Puhiwahine Te Rangi-hirawea. She knew many of the notable chiefs and leading women among the tribes of…

William Barnard Rhodes was baptised in Epworth, Lincolnshire, England, on 9 May 1807, the eldest son of Theodosia Maria Heaton and her husband, William Rhodes, a prosperous Yorkshire-born tenant farmer. Rhodes went to…

Mary Edith Clarke was born in Waimate North in the Bay of Islands on 23 September 1888, the daughter of Marsden Clarke, a grazier, and his wife, Frances Emily Stuart. Mary's great-grandfather, George Clarke, had arrived…

Maud Winifred Kimbell was born on 22 December 1880 at Dunedin, New Zealand, the daughter of Eliza Palmer and her husband, Alfred Charles Kimbell, a fruiterer and property owner who served a term as a Dunedin city…

Frederick Sinclaire was born in Papakura Valley near Auckland on 10 July 1881, the son of Irish parents Mary Carson and her husband, John Sinclaire, a farmer. The Sinclaires were poor, but at 11, Frederick, a pupil at…

George and Louisa Snelson are remembered as the father and mother of Palmerston North. Together, they were associated with founding or initiating most of the institutions and civic projects in the town during the 1870s…

Gisela (Gisa) Frankl was born in Vienna, Austria, on 28 November 1898, the second of four children of Hermann Frankl, a tinsmith, and his wife, Malvine Neuner. She attended elementary and secondary school before…

Pirimi Pererika Tāhiwi was born on 16 September 1890 at Ōtaki. His father, Rāwiri Rota Tāhiwi, a Native Land Court assessor, was of Ngāti Raukawa and Ngāti Maiōtaki. His mother, Keita Koa, who was also known as Kapu…

Eruini (Edwin) Heina Taipari was born probably in 1889 or 1890 at Thames. He was the younger son of Hauāuru Tīkapa Taipari, later baptised as Wīrope Hōtereni (Willoughby Shortland) Taipari, the chief of Ngāti Maru, who…