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Alwyn Keith Warren was born in Wellington, New Zealand, on 23 September 1900, the son of Thomas John Cory Warren, a merchant, and his wife, Lucy Frances Williams. Doreen Eda Laws was born at Portswood, near Southampton…

Joshua Strange Williams was born at Paddington, London, England, on 19 September 1837, the eldest son of Lucy Strange and her husband, Joshua Williams, a conveyancer who became an eminent barrister and wrote…

Māui Wiremu Piti Naera Pōmare was one of the generation of Māori leaders educated at Te Aute College in the 1890s who were to assume positions of leadership in both the Māori and Pākehā worlds. His birthplace was Pāhau…

Ronald Macmillan Algie was born in Wyndham, Southland, on 22 October 1888, the son of John Alexander Algie, a postmaster, and his wife, Agnes Macmillan. Algie was educated at Arrowtown, Thames High School and Balclutha…

Patricia Bartlett became a household name in 1970s New Zealand. Hers was a celebrity of an unusual kind: she stood against the tide of social change which promoted more relaxed attitudes to sexuality. A petite, neatly…

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…

Robert Gant is best known for his photographs of men taken in the Wellington and Wairarapa regions between the 1880s and the early years of the twentieth century. These historically significant images document the…

John Robert Godley, founder of the Canterbury settlement, is said to have been born in Dublin, Ireland, on 29 May 1814, the eldest son of John Godley, a prosperous landowner of Killegar and his wife, Katharine Daly. On…

William Hall Jones was born on 16 January 1851 at Folkestone, Kent, England, the son of William Hall Jones and his wife, Margaret Hall. His father, a cabinet-maker, undertook the education of his children himself. At…

Henry John Chitty Harper was the first Anglican bishop of Christchurch, from 1856 to 1890. From 1868 until 1890 he was also primate of the Anglican Church in New Zealand. He was baptised at Holy Trinity Church in…

John Kinder was born on 17 September 1819 at London, England, the oldest surviving child of Thomas Kinder, a wealthy merchant, and his second wife, Fanny Pickworth. John's interest in art began early when he took walks…

James Michael Liston (registered at birth as Michael James) was born in Dunedin on 9 June 1881, one of a family of five children of Mary Sullivan and her husband, James Liston, a hotel-keeper. His parents were both from…

Thomas Mackenzie was baptised on 10 March 1853 in Edinburgh, Scotland, one of five children of David Stewart Mackenzie, a gardener, and his wife, Rebecca Noble. His name was recorded at birth as Thomas Noble Mackenzie,…

Robert McNab was born at Dunragget farm, near Invercargill, New Zealand, on 1 October 1864. He was the eldest child of Janet McQueen and her husband, Alexander McNab, a runholder who served as a member of the Otago and…

William Hillier Onslow was born at Old Alresford, Hampshire, England, on 7 March 1853, the only son of George Augustus Cranley Onslow and his wife, Mary Harriet Anne Loftus. He was educated at Eton College and then…

The name of John Davies Wilder Ormond came to be synonymous with the New Zealand meat industry in the three decades following the Second World War. He was born at Waipukurau on 8 September 1905, the eldest son of…

Evelyn Margaret Polson was born in Christchurch on 23 April 1899. She was the seventh and youngest child of Mary Elizabeth Renshaw and her husband, John Sutherland Polson. Her father was accountant at, and later manager…

Frederick Joseph Page profoundly influenced New Zealand musical life through his teaching, writing, broadcasts and concert performances. He was born in Lyttelton on 4 December 1905, the son of David Joseph Page, a coal…

In February 1947, at the New Zealand Society’s annual London dinner, Lord Tedder (head of the Royal Air Force) said of Keith Park: ‘If ever any one man won the Battle of Britain, he did. I don’t believe it is realized…

William Lee Rees was born probably on 16 December 1836 at Bristol, England, the son of James Rees, a surgeon, and his wife, Elizabeth Pocock. Rees's father died when he was young, and he was brought up by his mother and…