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Alice Esther Glen was born in Christchurch on 26 December 1881, the third of twelve children of Robert Parker Glen, an accountant, and his wife, Alice Helen White. She grew up in spacious surroundings in Gloucester…

Tobias McGlinchy Hill was born in Blantyre, near Glasgow, Scotland, on 5 November 1915, the son of Alice Wood, a mill worker, and her husband, Joseph Hill, a coalminer. Toby learnt about hardship and unionism at a young…

John MacGregor was born, probably in 1849 or 1850, at Aberfeldy, Perthshire, Scotland, the son of James MacGregor, a stonemason, and his wife, Isabella MacGregor. After receiving his primary education at the Breadalbane…

Tāmati Hōne Ōraukawa was a member of Ngāti Manuhiakai hapū of Ngā Ruahine, a section of Ngāti Ruanui of South Taranaki. He was the principal leader of Ngā Ruahine from the 1840s to the 1860s, and lived at Katotauru.…

Henry Hubert Ostler was born at Ben Ohau station near Timaru, South Canterbury, on 2 July 1876, the third child and only son of Emma Brignell Roberts and her husband, William Henry Ostler, the station proprietor. After…

Sarah Saunders, born on 26 August 1863 at Waimea South, New Zealand, was the sixth of 10 children of Rhoda Flower and her husband, the radical politician, writer, temperance advocate and champion of women's suffrage…

Edward Richardson was born in London, England, probably in 1830 or 1831, the son of Elizabeth Sarah Miller and her husband, Richard Richardson, a merchant. Edward was educated at the City of London School. He trained as…

Bathia (known as Bathie) Howie Stuart was born on 10 May 1893 in Hastings, the daughter of Ellen Elizabeth Downie and her husband, Alexander Stuart, a draper. Her parents divorced when she was a child and from around…

Hōne Pīhama Te Rei Hanataua was the fifth child of Mōaho Te Rei and Tūmahuki, and was a nephew of the Tangahoe chief Te Rei Hanataua. In the second half of the nineteenth century he became the leader of Ngāti Tama-…

Tohi Te Ururangi was a renowned warrior and leader of Ngāti Whakaue section of Te Arawa. He was born probably in the early nineteenth century. Through his father, Te Piere II, he was descended from Whakaue, through…

Charles Begg was baptised at Aboyne, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, on 23 July 1825. He was the son of William Begg and his wife, Margaret Hunter. On 19 July 1855 at Old Machar, Aberdeenshire, he married Jessie Milne,…

Elizabeth Bellamy was born in Lady Wood, Birmingham, England, on 19 March 1845, the daughter of Robert Bellamy, a cordwainer, and his wife, Ann White. She became a teacher, but after hearing about a massacre of Maronite…

Thomas George Macarthy was born in London, England, probably in 1833 or 1834, the son of Thomas Bernard Macarthy, a florist, and his wife, Ann Elizabeth Grout. Nothing is known about his early life. In the 1850s he went…

Sarah Cockburn was born on 7 August 1864 in the parish of Abbey St Bathans in Berwickshire, Scotland, the seventh and youngest child of John Cockburn and his wife, Elizabeth Liddle. John Cockburn was a farm worker who…

Henry Sewell came to New Zealand in 1853 at the age of 45 as an official of the Canterbury Association and spent about 17½ years in the colony in three periods: 1853–56, 1859–66 and 1870–76. He became one of the leaders…

Octavius Hadfield, the 10th child and youngest son of Joseph Hadfield, silk merchant, and his wife, Amelia Caroline White, was born at Bonchurch, Isle of Wight, England, and was baptised on 6 November 1814. His marriage…

Archibald Charles Barrington was born in Wellington on 8 May 1906 to Christina Jane Blackwell and her English-born husband, John Benjamin Barrington. He grew up in Marton, Rangitikei, where his father worked as a stoker…

Roger Shepherd Duff was born in Invercargill on 11 July 1912, the son of Jessie Barclay and her husband, Oliver Duff, a schoolteacher who later became well known as a journalist and first editor of the New Zealand…

Edward Oliver Haddon, later known as Ōriwa Tahupōtiki Haddon, was born at Waitōtara, South Taranaki, on 7 November 1898, the eldest son of a Māori Methodist minister, Robert Tahupōtiki Haddon of Ngāti Ruanui, and his…

William Francis Drummond Jervois was born, probably on 10 September 1821, at Cowes, Isle of Wight, England, and was baptised there on 16 October. He was the eldest son of Lieutenant Colonel (later General) William…