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William Ranstead was born on 8 December 1859 at Birkenhead, Cheshire, England, the son of John Ranstead, an engine fitter, and his wife, Margaret Morris. The Ransteads moved to Liverpool and William was educated at the…

Alfred Hamish Reed, the founder of one of New Zealand's first large publishing firms, was born on 30 December 1875 at Hayes, Middlesex, England, the second of four children of Elisabeth Wild and her husband, James…

James David Salmond was born in Queenstown on 1 May 1898, one of eight children of Sarah Cockburn and her husband, John Salmond, a carpenter. His parents were active in the Presbyterian church and the community, setting…

John Halliday Scott was born at Edinburgh, Scotland, on 28 December 1851, the son of Marion Shaw Lidderdale and her husband, Andrew Scott, a writer to the signet. He was baptised John Lidderdale Scott but later changed…

Ronald Joseph Smith was born in Wellington on 2 May 1921, the son of carpenter Joseph Copley Smith and his London-born wife, Mabel Ellen Courcha, a former laundry worker. He was educated at Wellington College, leaving…

George Gatonby Stead was born in London, England, on 17 August 1841, the son of George Stead, a tin plate worker, and his wife, Mary Gatonby. In 1849 he accompanied his parents to South Africa where he attended St…

Arnold Wall was born on 15 November 1869 at Nuwara Eliya in Ceylon (Sri Lanka), the sixth of nine children of George Wall, a coffee planter and merchant, and his wife, Mary Ann Dixon. He had five half-sisters from his…

Austin Graham Bagnall was born in Auckland on 30 November 1912, the only child of Charles Claude Bagnall, a farm manager at Kāwhia, and his wife, Constance Margaret Austin, a governess. After the First World War the…

Hēnare Te Raumoa Huatahi Balneavis was born at Muriwai, Poverty Bay, according to family information on 26 March 1880, the only son of John Henry Balneavis, a surveyor, and his wife, Rina Matewai Wilson. His special…

Alexander William Bickerton was born at Alton, Hampshire, England, on 7 January 1842, the second son of Sophia Matilda Eames and her husband, Richard Bickerton, a builder's clerk and draughtsman. He was baptised in the…

Henry Samuel Chapman was born in Kennington, London, England, on 21 July 1803, the son of Henry Chapman, a civil servant in the Barrack Department, and his wife, Ann Hart Davies. He was educated in schools at Bromley,…

Gordon Herriot Cunningham was born at Heriot, West Otago, on 27 August 1892, one of seven children of Helen Donaldson Herriot and her husband, Joseph Watson Cunningham, manager of a sheep station at nearby Moa Flat. He…

Frederick Widdowson Doidge was born at Cootamundra, New South Wales, on 26 February 1884, the son of Edwin Doidge and his wife, Mary Lucy Chilcott. His father had been a journalist in Thames, New Zealand, before…

Edward (Ned) Pōhau Ellison was born on 26 November 1884 at Waikanae, near Wellington. Also known as Pōhau Erihana, he was the 11th of 12 children of Rāniera (Daniel) Tāheke Ellison, a farmer, and his wife, Nani Weller (…

John Davies Enys, the second son of John Samuel Enys and his wife, Catherine Gilbert, was born on 11 October 1837 at Enys in Penryn, Cornwall, England, the family seat from the time of Edward I. His mother had, before…

Roderick David Finlayson was born in Devonport, Auckland, on 26 April 1904. His father, John Maclennan Finlayson, was an accounts clerk in the Bank of New South Wales in Auckland. Because of gambling debts he absconded…

James Fletcher arrived in New Zealand in 1908 with a bag of tools, a few pounds in his pocket and an unflagging optimism that would help make him one of New Zealand’s most influential industrialists. He was born in…

Thomas Morland Hocken, whose name is perpetuated in the Hocken Library, Dunedin, was born on 14 January 1836 in Rutlandshire, England. He was the third surviving son of Joshua Hocken, who was of Cornish descent, and his…

Henry (Harry) James Hopkins was born on 11 August 1912 in the tiny Western Australian town of Dwellingup, the son of Emma Eliza Watts and her husband, Harold Hopkins, a yard foreman and later forestry department…

Maata (Martha) Rātana, later better known as Te Reo T. W. R. Hura, was one of seven children of Te Urumanaao Ngāpaki and her husband, Tahupōtiki Wiremu Rātana, who was to found the Rātana church. She was born on 16…