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Tūtere Wī Repa was one of a group of Māori who, in the early twentieth century, set out to put their professional training at the disposal of their people. Less well known than men such as Apirana Ngata, Peter Buck and…

In the second half of the twentieth century, Keith Sinclair transformed how New Zealanders understood themselves and their history. A prominent poet and New Zealand’s most important historian of the 1950s and 1960s, his…

Stephen Shepherd Allen was born at Cheadle, Staffordshire, England, on 2 August 1882, the seventh of ten children of MP William Shepherd Allen and his wife, Elizabeth Penelope Candlish, herself the daughter of an MP.…

John Holland Baker was born on 4 December 1841 at Chilcomb, Hampshire, England, one of 10 children of Catherine Mathias and her husband, Thomas Fielding Baker, an Anglican clergyman. He was raised by his grandmother for…

Mary Ursula Bethell was born at Horsell, Surrey, England, on 6 October 1874, the first of three children of Isabella Anne Lillie and her husband, Richard Bethell, a barrister. Both parents had lived in New Zealand in…

Arthur Herbert Carman was born in Pāpārangi, Johnsonville, Wellington, on 2 August 1902, the eldest of five sons of Gertrude Matilda Burd and her husband, Walter John Carman. His father, a former compositor with the New…

Henry William Cleary (baptised William Henry) was born on 15 January 1859 at Oulart, County Wexford, Ireland. His Catholic father, Robert Cleary, a farmer, came from the neighbouring county of Wicklow and settled in…

George Fowlds was born at Fenwick, Ayrshire, Scotland, on 15 September 1860. He was the youngest son of Agnes Craig and her husband, Matthew Fowlds, a Covenanter descendant and one of the last of the hand-loom weavers,…

Thomas Bannatyne Gillies was born at Rothesay, on the Isle of Bute, Scotland, on 17 January 1828. He was the eldest of nine children of John Gillies, local lawyer and town clerk, and his wife, Isabella Lillie, daughter…

Christian Gottlieb Ferdinand Hochstetter is said to have been born on 30 April 1829 in Esslingen, kingdom of Württemberg, the son of Christian Ferdinand Hochstetter, a professor and parson, who had published works on…

Golan Haberfield Maaka, also known as Te Kōrana, was born on 4 April 1904 on Ōruawharo station, Takapau, Hawke's Bay. His father was Aritaku Maaka, of Ngāti Hikatoa of Waimārama and Ngāi Tahu of Takapau, hapū of Ngāti…

Ronald Allison Kells Mason was born in Penrose, Auckland, on 10 January 1905, the son of Francis William Mason and his wife, Jessie Forbes Kells. His father, a perfume maker, died of an accidental overdose of opium in…

Hēmi Pōtatau was born on 20 May 1904 at Te Mimi o Te Hiki, Nūhaka, the ninth of 12 children of Hata Pōtatau, also known as Tīpene, and his wife, Te Raita (Taraita) Rore, also known as Te Waimātao. His father had links…

Rāhui Te Kiri was born at Pākiri, on the east coast of Northland, in 1830 or 1831. Her father was Te Kiri, a chief of Ngāti Wai, and of Te Kawerau and Ngāti Manuhiri hapū of Ngāti Whātua. Rāhui's mother was Pepei of…

Frank Oswald Victor Acheson was born on 27 June 1887 at Riverton, Southland, the youngest of nine children of Robert Acheson, a merchant, and his wife, Annie Sinclair Allan. He was educated at Riverton school and…

James Herries Beattie (known as Herries) was the son of Scots immigrants James Beattie and Mary Roden (Rodden) Thomson, who arrived in Otago in 1862 and were married in 1874. After some years of farming, James Beattie…

Kimble Bent, also known as Kimball Bent, was born in Eastport, Maine, USA, on 24 August 1837, the fourth of the seven children of John (or Waterman) Bent, a shipbuilder and carpenter, of Nova Scotian origin, and his…

William Brown was born probably in Dundee, Angus, Scotland, in 1809 or 1810. After studying law he was admitted as a Writer to the Signet. He did not practise for long in his homeland. In 1839 he and his wife, Jessie…

Richard Mitchelson Campbell was born on 28 August 1897 at Maunu, Whāngārei, to Norman Allan Campbell, a farmer at Maungatapere, and his wife, Ann Wright Lang, both children of Highland Scots settlers who arrived at…

Frederic Alonzo Carrington was born in Chelmsford, Essex, England, and baptised there on 26 July 1808. He was the third son of Elizabeth Peters and her husband, William Henry Carrington, Royal Marine barrack master at…