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David Tannock was born at Tarbolton, Ayrshire, Scotland, on 23 September 1873, the son of William Tannock, a ploughman, and his wife, Jane McCall. Tannock was educated at the public school at Mauchline and at Glasgow…

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…

Elizabeth Best Ellison was born on 21 September 1868 at Lyttelton, New Zealand, the daughter of Robert Best Ellison and his wife, Rachel Robinson. Elizabeth spent her early childhood on farms in South Canterbury, moving…

William Webster was born in 1815 at Portland, Maine, in the United States, and arrived in New Zealand in March 1835. It has been suggested that he absconded from a whaling ship but he may have arrived by way of Sydney,…

Anne Adams was born at Greenvale, near Wickliffe, Victoria, Australia, on 11 June 1848. She was the daughter of Jane Anderson, a Scot, and her husband, Robert Adams, an Irishman. Her father was a successful pastoralist…

Francis Gordon Wilson was born in Subiaco, a district of Perth, Western Australia, on 27 November 1900. His father, Francis (Frank) John Wilson, was a New Zealander and an architect, and his mother, Mary Catherine O’…

George Augustus Selwyn was born on 5 April 1809 at Hampstead, England, the second son of William Selwyn, a noted constitutional lawyer, and his wife, Laetitia Frances Kynaston. His education began at a preparatory…

John Sheehan was born at Auckland, New Zealand, on 5 July 1844, the son of David Sheehan and his wife, Ellen Byrne. His father, a Warkworth carpenter, had emigrated from Ireland to Melbourne, Australia, about 1840,…

Born at Adelaide, South Australia, on 10 February 1855, James Allen was the son of James Allen and his wife, Esther Bax. After his mother died James was taken to Dunedin, New Zealand, by his father, sometime between…

Francis Henry Dillon Bell, known to his friends and family as Harry, was born at Nelson, New Zealand, on 31 March 1851, the eldest son of the former New Zealand Company agent Francis Dillon Bell and his wife, Margaret…

Charles Frederick Goldie was born in Auckland, New Zealand, on 20 October 1870. The second of eight children born to David Goldie and his wife, Maria Partington, he was second-generation colonial on both sides. His…

Pana-kareao was an influential leader of Te Pātū hapū of Te Rarawa. At the time of his birth his father, Te Kaka, was involved in intertribal wars. Driven from Ōruru, near Mangonui, Te Kaka fled towards North Cape.…

Thomas Edward Skinner was born in Mangaweka on 18 April 1909, the eldest son of Alice Chalk and her husband, Thomas Edward Skinner, a tinsmith and plumber. He had two elder sisters and two younger brothers. Skinner’s…

Thomas Edward Taylor was born on 16 June 1862 in Kirton in Lindsey, Lincolnshire, England, the son of Edward Taylor and his wife, Anne Turner. His father had been in the navy and the police force before the family moved…

Mountford Tosswill Woollaston was born at Toko, Stratford, on 11 April 1910, and raised with four brothers on a dairy farm near Huinga in the Taranaki backblocks. He was the son of John Reginald Woollaston, a…

Early life Thomas Allen Monro Curnow (known as Allen) was born in Timaru on 17 June 1911, the second of three sons of Tremayne Monro Curnow, an Anglican clergyman, and his wife, Jessamine Towler Gambling. On his…

John Ross Marshall was born in Wellington on 5 March 1912, the son of Allan Marshall, a clerk, and his wife, Florence May Ross. His father was from Perthshire, and his mother’s family had also originally come from…

William Blaxland Benham was born in Isleworth, Middlesex, England, on 29 March 1860, the sixth of seven children of Ebenezer (Edward) Benham and his wife, Mary Ann Shoppee. Ebenezer was a prosperous solicitor and the…

Gordon Alexander Brown was born at Turakina, near Wanganui, on 28 November 1907, one of 12 children of Annie Cains and her husband, John Robert Brown, a flaxmill worker. Gordon initially attended Tokomaru School, but…

Alexander Wellington Croskery was born in Swansea, Wales, on 19 December 1878, the son of Mary Ann Mortimer Thomson and her Irish-born husband, Alexander Brown Croskery, a provision merchant and later an accountant. He…