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Lucy Beatrice Moore was born in Warkworth on 14 July 1906, the fifth of eight children of Janet Morison and her husband, Harry Blomfield Moore. Their farm, Huamara, produced fruit and poultry and Harry was also a…

William Charles Nation was born in Sydney, Australia, on 18 February 1840, the eldest child of William Nation, a printer, and his wife, Mary Jenkin Howe. In 1857 the family moved to Nelson, New Zealand. On arrival…

Charles William Adams was the son of Jane Maiden and her husband, Henry Cay Adams, a farmer and chaplain. He was born at Buckland, Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania), probably on 7 July 1840. He was later to credit much of…

Barrett Crumen (or Krumen) was perhaps the last of New Zealand's old-time swaggers. He was reportedly born in Latvia on 26 March 1878, and was a member of the Lutheran church. Nothing is known of his family and it…

Eliza (known as Leilah) Urquhart was born in Glasgow, Scotland, on 29 January 1877, daughter of Margaret Wright and her husband, Robert Maurice Urquhart, a ship's steward. In 1880 Robert Urquhart brought his family to…

William Noel Benson was born at Penge, Surrey, England, on 26 December 1885, the son of William Benson, of independent means, and his wife, Emma Elizabeth Mather. Shortly after their son's birth the couple moved to…

Robert Brown, also known as Robert Brown tertius, was born in Glasgow, Scotland, probably between 1821 and 1824, the son of Mary Miller and her husband, George Brown, a bootmaker. Nothing is known of his early life or…

Thomas Denniston was born at Greenock, Renfrewshire, Scotland, on 28 March 1821, the son of John Denniston, a merchant, and his wife, Jean Fairrie. Thomas's parents died when he was young, and he was brought up by an…

Barzillai Quaife was born at Lenham, Kent, England, on 29 December 1798, the son of Thomas Quaife, a farmer, and his wife, Amelia Austin. He married Maria Smith on 4 November 1834, in the parish of St Anne, Soho,…

Beatrice Hill Tinsley was an English-born, New Zealand-educated, theoretical astrophysicist and cosmologist. Through her research in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s, she proved that the universe was infinite…

Algernon Charles Gifford was born on board the Zealandia on Good Friday, 18 April 1862, somewhere off the Cape of Good Hope. He was the son of Sarah Annie Evans and her husband, Algernon Gifford, an Anglican clergyman…

George Fenwick was born in Sunderland, Durham, England, on 1 February 1847, to Robertine Jane Brown, a stationer's daughter, and her husband, Robert Fenwick, a Chartist cabinet-maker. They and their four sons (three…

Norman Lascelles Elder was born on 6 April 1896 in Wellington, the son of Henry Richardson Elder and his wife, Anne Wildman. He grew up in a frontier farming environment at Waikanae, where his father cleared the bush to…

William Henry John Seffern was born, probably in August 1829, in County Cork, Ireland; his parents' names have not been traced. Seffern was trained in the printing trade. He married in London, probably in 1849 or 1850;…

William Blomfield was born in Auckland on 1 April 1866, the son of Emma Watts Collis and her husband, Samuel Blomfield, a carpenter. The family moved to Thames the next year. In 1880 they returned to Auckland where…

George Edgecumbe was born on 4 January 1845 at Chippenham, Wiltshire, England, the son of Martha Eyles and her husband, Henry Edgecumbe, a grocer and later a brewer. After his mother's death from smallpox in 1856,…

Frederick William Hilgendorf was born at Waihola, Otago, New Zealand, on 23 January 1874, the youngest of four children of Elizabeth Benstead and her husband, Charles Augustus Gustavas Hilgendorf. His father was a…

Arthur William Baden Powell was born at Wellington on 4 April 1901, the son of Arthur Powell, a driver, and his wife, Minnie Sablofski. After attending primary schools in Parnell and Mount Eden, he went on to Auckland…

Robert Samuel Ross was born on 5 January 1873 in Sydney, Australia, son of a Scottish compositor, Robert Mitchell Ross, and his English wife, Anne Matilda Bonham. In 1885 he accompanied his parents to Queensland, where…

Alexander McKay has been a legendary figure among New Zealand geologists for over 100 years. He was born in Carsphairn, Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland, on 11 April 1841. His family were of Calvinist shepherd stock,…