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George Malcolm Thomson, born on 2 October 1848 at Calcutta, India, was the son of Margaret Justin Pratt and her husband, William Thomson, a Scottish mercantile trader, tea planter and company owner. George was educated…

Eruera Hāmiora Tumutara, also known as Eru Hāmiora Pio, was probably born in 1859 or 1860 in the Te Whāiti district south-east of Murupara in the Bay of Plenty. He was the third child of Hāmiora Tumutara Te Tihi-o-te-…

Gordon Frederick Walters was born in Wellington on 24 September 1919, the son of Ethel Constance Mexted and her husband, Henry Frederick Walters, a tailor’s presser. Gordon grew up in Wellington, where he attended…

Arthur Hugh Ward was born in Spalding, Lincolnshire, England, on 25 March 1906, the son of Ada Elizabeth Burton and her husband, Arthur Ward, a publican and photographer of Thornaby-on-Tees. After his father’s death in…

Lindsay Poole was a forester and senior public servant who guided the New Zealand Forest Service, first as assistant director then as director, during the middle decades of the twentieth century. His career followed an…

At the time the longest-serving mayor in the city’s history, Jack Allum dominated Auckland’s local political life in the 1940s and 1950s. In particular, his name was to become indelibly associated with the construction…

Agnes Elizabeth Lloyd Bennett was born on 24 June 1872 at Neutral Bay, Sydney, Australia, the sixth of seven children of William Christopher Bennett, an exceptionally able engineer and commissioner of roads and bridges…

Henry Gilbert Bennett (better known as Harry Scott Bennett) was born in Geelong, Victoria, Australia, on 1 June 1877, the son of a radical carpenter, James William Bennett, and his equally radical wife, Charlotte Mary…

Edward Musgrave Blaiklock was born on 6 July 1903 in Birmingham, England, the son of Florence Tromans and her husband, Edward Blaiklock, a foreman in the electrical department of a local steam engineering firm. The…

John Rutherfurd Blair (baptised John) was born on 8 February 1843 at Airdrie, Lanarkshire, Scotland, the son of Jane Rankin and her husband, Robert Blair, a miner. John entered the office of a large Glasgow paper…

George William Clinkard was born on 17 September 1893 in Auckland, the son of English parents Cecil Henry Clinkard and his wife, Julia Letitia Hooper. His father, a farmer at Makarau on the Kaipara Harbour, was later a…

John Bell Condliffe was one of the first generation of students trained in economics under James Hight at Canterbury College, Christchurch, and went on to become one of New Zealand's best-known international economists…

Ernest Bowyer Corbett was born on 7 May 1898 to William Corbett, a labourer, and his wife, Annie Bowyer, at Ōkato, Taranaki, where his parents later farmed. He attended Puniho Native School for four years and later…

Robert Atherton Edwin was born at Camden Town, London, England, on 16 August 1839, the son of Felix Edwin, a commander in the Royal Navy, and his wife, Marianne Atherton. After attending Wimborne Minster Grammar School…

Harold John Finlay was born in Comilla, India (now in Bangladesh), on 22 March 1901, the son of David Finlay and his wife, Emma Matilda Thomson, who were Baptist missionaries from New Zealand. He was left a paraplegic…

Antoine Marie Garin was born on 23 July 1810 at St Rambert-en-Bugey, in the department of Ain, France. He was the son of Joseph Marie Garin, a notary public, and his wife, Françoise Margueritte Augerd. He was ordained a…

Gordon Holden Mirams was born in Christchurch on 9 March 1909, the son of Leslie Haywood Mirams, a travelling salesman, and his wife, Mary Elvire Webb. A regular film-goer from the age of 10, he received his secondary…

Geoffrey Sylvester Peren was born at Streatham, Surrey, England, on 30 November 1892, the son of Ethel Mary Fleming and her husband, Robert Henry Peren. His father came from a farming background but after attending the…

William Noel Pharazyn was born in Wellington on 10 April 1894, the son of Maud Eleanor Kempthorne and her husband, Charles Pharazyn, a sheepfarmer from a prominent Wellington business and farming family. His grandfather…

Thomas Henry Potts, one of New Zealand's earliest conservationists, was born in London, England, on 23 November 1824, the son of Thomas Potts, a gun maker, and his wife, Mary Ann Freeman. He was baptised at Brandon,…