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Adam Hamilton was born at Forest Hill, Southland, on 20 August 1880, the son of Scottish parents John Hamilton, a farmer, and his wife, Mary McIlwrick. He attended school at Forest Hill and Lochiel, leaving from…

Herbert Ernest Hart was born in New Zealand at Taratahi, near Carterton, Wairarapa, on 13 October 1882. He was the son of Mary Ann Reid and her husband, William Hart, a labourer. Between 1887 and 1895 Hart attended…

Herman Harry Jekeles was born at Dubauti, in the district of Cernauti, Romania (now Chernovtsy, Ukraine), on 5 August 1908. He was the youngest of five children of Jewish parents Mina Rosa Croon (Corne) and her husband…

Pāora Kaiwhata's father, Tareahi, of Ngāti Hinepare and Ngāi Tākaha, hapū of Ngāti Kahungunu in Hawke's Bay, was living at Te Rae-o-Tahumata near Ōmāhu when Kaiwhata was born. The tribes of the Heretaunga plain were…

Elizabeth (Bessie) Reid Henderson was born at Kaiapoi on 19 November 1873. She was the eighth of nine children of Alice Connolly and her husband, Daniel Henderson, a storeman. A few years after her birth the family…

George Nēpia was born at Wairoa, Hawke's Bay, of Ngāti Rākaipaaka of Nūhaka and Māhia. His birth date was registered as 25 April 1905, but he later claimed he was born in 1908. His father, Peta Piripoi Nēpia, and mother…

Paratene Ngata was born at Ahikouka, near Waiomatatini, on the East Coast, possibly in September 1849. His father was Wiremu Karaka Te Ito, of Reporua, and his mother was Hera Te Ihi, known also as Ruataupare. He was…

James O’Brien belonged to the cluster of Australian labour activists who reached New Zealand in the first decade of the twentieth century, as the nation’s trade union movement was beginning to assert itself industrially…

Francis William Redwood was born on 8 April 1839 in the parish of Tixall, Staffordshire, England, the son of Henry Redwood, a farmer, and his wife, Mary Gilbert. The family emigrated to Nelson, New Zealand, on the…

The prolific publisher and writer Alexander Wyclif Reed was born on 7 March 1908 in Ponsonby, Auckland, the only child of Alexander John Reed, a Methodist minister, and his wife, Julia Carter. The Reed family was hard-…

Magdalene (Magdalen) Stuart Robison was born on 24 December 1865 at Mudgee, New South Wales, Australia, the daughter of Mary Magdalene Saunders and her husband, William Smoult Robison, a bank manager. In 1868 the family…

Harold Winston Rhodes was born on 21 July 1905 at Malvern, Melbourne, Australia, the son of Winifred Mary Short and her husband, Thomas Rhodes, a doctor. Winston attended Melbourne High School and then the University of…

Dorothy Kate Richmond was born on 12 September 1861 at Parnell, Auckland, New Zealand, the third of five children of Mary Smith and her husband, James Crowe Richmond, a notable colonist and politician. Known throughout…

Te Rangiātaahua Kiniwē Royal (Roera) was born on 23 August 1896 at Muhunoa, Ōhau, in Horowhenua, the seventh of ten children of Te Kiniwē Roera Te Ahukaramū and Kēriata Hūnia Te Weu Tukukino. Rangi, as he was known, was…

Raffaello Squarise – also known as Raphael – was born, probably on 13 November 1856, in Vicenza, north-eastern Italy. His father was Davide Antonio Squarise, a sculptor; his mother's name is unknown. At the age of 12…

Although born in London (on 11 December 1893) William George Stevens had deep New Zealand roots: his grandfather was an early settler of Southland, and his father, William Stevens, was an employee of the New Zealand…

Albert Oliphant Stewart, also known as Te Tāwhero Stewart (Tuati) and Arapeta Tuati, was born in Whakatāne on 16 July 1884, the son of Charles Edward Oliphant Stewart, a farmer, and his wife, Lily Agnes Te Tāwero, also…

Thomas Tanner was born in Wiltshire, England, probably in 1830, and was baptised at Devizes on 31 July 1831. He was the son of Mary Pontin and her husband, Joseph Tanner, a landowner. After studying medicine briefly,…

Katarina Kuini Wharerauaruhe Ellison (Erihana) was born on 29 December 1899 at Puketeraki, north of Dunedin. Both her parents, John Matapura Ellison and his wife, Hera Parata, were of Ngāi Tahu; their main hapū were…

Henry Thomas Joynt Thacker was born at Okains Bay, Banks Peninsula, New Zealand, on 20 March 1870. His parents, Essy Joynt and her husband, John Edward Thacker, a former editor of the Sligo Guardian, had come to…