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Frederic Truby King, the fifth of seven children, was born in New Zealand on 1 April 1858 on the Mangorei farmstead, just outside New Plymouth. Both his mother, Mary Chilman, and his father, Thomas King, were among the…

Education Douglas Gordon Lilburn was born in Whanganui on 2 November 1915, the seventh and youngest child of Robert Lilburn and his wife, Rosamund Louisa Shield. Home, until the age of nine, was the picturesque and…

John William Salmond's contributions to many branches of the law in New Zealand, together with his international eminence as a legal theorist, entitle him to be regarded as New Zealand's most eminent jurist. He was born…

Fergus George Frederick Sheppard, known as ‘Ferg’ or ‘Shep’ to friends and colleagues, was the Government Architect who led the Modernist architectural transformation of the government’s building programme in New…

Hōne Riiwi Tōia was born probably sometime between 1858 and 1860 at Waimate North in the Bay of Islands. His grandfather was a Jewish trader called Levy (Riiwi), who, in different family traditions, jumped ship at…

Whāea (mother) Betty Wark worked with ‘at risk’ Māori youth in Auckland for more than 30 years. The product of a difficult childhood, she struggled to provide a family environment to many young people whose lives had…

Peter Fraser was born on 28 August 1884 at the highland village of Fearn, Ross-shire, Scotland, the son of Donald Fraser, a master shoemaker, and his wife, Isabella McLeod. Peter's attendance at the local school was…

William Ferguson Massey was born at Limavady, near Londonderry in Northern Ireland, on 26 March 1856. Bill Massey, as he was generally known, was the eldest child of John Massey and his wife, Mary Anne Ferguson. Bill's…

Ormond Edward Burton was born in Auckland on 16 January 1893, the son of Mary Alice Beatrice Winn and her husband, Robert Burton, a carter, who was later a market gardener. As a child Ormond learnt the value of hard…

Alistair Te Ariki Campbell was one of New Zealand’s most distinctive poetic voices from the 1950s to the 2000s. His work, which combined lyricism and darkness, was shaped by an idyllic Rarotongan childhood, early family…

Marie Clay was an influential literacy researcher and educationalist whose pioneering Reading Recovery programme changed the experience of learning to read for many children in many countries. She sometimes quoted Allen…

Gifford Jackson was an important pioneer in the field of industrial design in New Zealand. After training as a naval architect in Glasgow, post-war employment with Fisher & Paykel and 17 years working as a designer…

The time and place of Hēnare Matua's birth are uncertain. It may have been at Nukutaurua, on the Māhia peninsula, in the 1830s. Airini Donnelly, his stepdaughter, said that he returned from Nukutaurua to Hawke's Bay '…

William Arthur Moffatt (Māwhete) was born at Tiakitahuna (Jackeytown), south of Palmerston North, on 4 March 1880, the son of Emiri Mōkena (Emily Morgan) and her husband, William Moffatt. His mother, also known as Ārani…

John Alexander McCullough was born at Belfast, Ireland, on 17 January 1860, the eldest of five children. He was the son of Sarah Davison and her husband, William John McCullough, a seaman, staunch unionist and Orangeman…

John Andrew Millar was born on 8 July 1855 in India, and baptised at Jullundur, Punjab, on 6 August 1855. He was the eldest son of Eliza Sarah Hawthorne and her husband, John Craufurd Millar, a lieutenant and later…

Erihapeti Rehu-Murchie was a Ngāi Tahu (or Kāi Tahu) leader and woman of mana, and a prominent activist in the fields of Māori welfare and health from the 1970s to the 1990s. She was a long-serving member and president…

Pioneer aviators Leo and Vivian Walsh were mainly responsible for New Zealand’s first successful powered, controlled aeroplane flights in 1911. The brothers designed and built New Zealand’s first successful seaplane and…

Francis Dillon Bell, usually called Dillon, is said to have been born in France on 8 October 1822. His father, Edward Bell, was a merchant and the British consul at Bordeaux. His mother, Frances, was the daughter of an…

According to family information, Maihi Parāone Kawiti was born in the Bay of Islands at Waiōmio, the cradle of Ngāti Hine, in 1807; his name at birth was Te Kūhanga. He was the third and youngest son of the chief Te…