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Thomson Wilson Leys was born at Snenton (Sneinton), near Nottingham in Nottinghamshire, England, on 23 April 1850, the son of Hannah Hartley Wilson and her husband, William Leys, a supervisor of inland revenue. Thomson…

John Malcolm was born on 31 August 1873 at Halkirk, Caithness, Scotland, one of four children of John Malcolm, a contractor mason, and his wife, Ann Swanson. His was a well-informed Presbyterian family with plenty of…

Algernon Instone Rainbow was born on 13 January 1885 in Hastings, Hawke’s Bay, the second of three children of William Rainbow, headmaster of Heretaunga school, and his wife, Julia Baly. On 16 February 1889 his father…

Hēmi (James) Tautari was born, probably in 1814 or 1815, at Paihia in the Bay of Islands. His father may have been Te Koki, the principal chief of Ngāpuhi at Paihia and brother of Hongi Hika's mother, Tuhikura, of Ngāti…

Alfred Patchett (Patiti) Warbrick told the historian James Cowan in 1934 that he had been born on 24 February 1860 near, and given his first bath in, the warm water basins of Te Tarata, the white terrace at Rotomahana.…

Henry Rodolph Wigley was born at Fairlie, South Canterbury, on 2 February 1913, the eldest son of Jessie Christie Grant and her husband, Rodolph Lysaght Wigley, a mail contractor, and later an airline operator. Harry…

Born in London, England, on 18 January 1857, Henry Francis Wigram was the son of a barrister, William Knox Wigram, and his wife, Mary Ann Pomeroy, daughter of the fifth Viscount Harberton. After attending Harrow School…

Sholto Kairākau Black was born in Ōpōtiki on 13 January 1902, the seventh child and youngest son of John Black, a farmer at nearby Ōtara, and his wife, Polly Matuakore (Pare Pīkake) Delamere, who was also known as Mary…

Charles Blomfield, the son of Elizabeth Emily Hickman and her husband, William Blomfield, a cutler, was born on 5 January 1848 in Holborn, London, England, the seventh of nine children. Charles's father died in 1857…

Arthur Gordon Butchers was born at Brunswick, Victoria, Australia, on 11 February 1885, the third son of Methodist minister Barnard Butchers and his wife, Susan Ann Cope. At the Church of England Grammar School, Geelong…

Chew Chong (Chau Tseung) was born in Canton (Guangzhou), China. Nothing is known of his parents except that they originated from Kaiping county, Guangdong province. His date of birth is unclear: Chong himself put it at…

Lance Cross was born in Dunedin on 12 November 1912 to Elizabeth Stewart and her husband, Cecil Thomas Cross, a fireman. Named John (and then, 12 days later, Cecil) Lancelot Stewart Cross, he was educated at Douglas…

Joseph William Kemp was born in Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire, England, on 16 December 1872, the son of Joseph Kemp, a police constable, and his wife, Mary Hopkin. Orphaned at nine and then separated from his five…

Edwin Mitchelson was the son of Alexander Mitchelson and his wife, Johanna Fitzpatrick, who arrived at Kaipara Harbour, New Zealand, from Sydney, Australia, on the Hannah Watson in April 1840. They settled at…

Manahi Nītama Paewai, sometimes known as ‘Doc’ Paewai, was born on 8 June 1920 at Mākirikiri, south of Dannevirke. His father, Nireaha (Niki) Paewai of Ngāti Te Rangiwhakāewa hapū of Rangitāne, was a farmer. His mother…

Ellen Margaret Scanlan, New Zealand's most widely read popular novelist of the 1930s and 1940s, was born in Picton on 15 January 1882, of Irish Catholic parentage. Her father, Michael Scanlan, came from County Kerry,…

Hugh Crawford Dixon Somerset (known as Crawford) was born in Belfast, North Canterbury, on 29 August 1895. He was the eldest of four children of Jane Dixon and her husband, George Crawford Black Somerset, a blacksmith…

William Appleton, the eldest of nine children, was born to Yorkshireman Edwin Appleton and his young Scots wife, Margaret Bruce, on 3 September 1889. They were living at Alexandra South (present-day Alexandra) in…

George Chamier, the son of William Chamier and his wife, Emily Crookenden, came from a prominent Huguenot family that had been in England since 1691. His great-grandmother's brother, Anthony Chamier, a prominent civil…

Henry George Ell is primarily remembered in Canterbury as the tireless promoter of the Summit Road along the crest of the Port Hills, but he also championed many other social and environmental causes. He was born…