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Rewi Alley was born in Springfield, Canterbury, on 2 December 1897 to Frederick James Alley, a schoolmaster, and his wife, Clara Maria Buckingham, who was active in the temperance and women's rights movements. He was…

Charles Edward Douglas was born on 1 July 1840 in Edinburgh, Scotland. He was the sixth and youngest child of Martha Brook and her husband, James Douglas, an accountant with the Commercial Bank of Scotland. Douglas…

Thomas Samuel Grace was born to John Grace and his wife, Sarah Lawrence Cox, on 16 February 1815 in Liverpool, Lancashire, England. He married Agnes Fearon on 23 July 1845 at Whitehaven, Cumberland, and they had 12…

Thomas Tanner was born in Wiltshire, England, probably in 1830, and was baptised at Devizes on 31 July 1831. He was the son of Mary Pontin and her husband, Joseph Tanner, a landowner. After studying medicine briefly,…

Robert Heaton Rhodes was born on 27 February 1861 at Purau, a farming locality on the shore of Lyttelton Harbour, the eldest son of Sophia Circuit Latter and her husband, Robert Heaton Rhodes, a substantial landowner.…

Te Hāpuku, sometimes called Te Ika-nui-o-te-moana, was born in the late eighteenth century. He was a leader of Ngāti Te Whatuiāpiti. Kinship links within Ngāti Kahungunu, Rangitāne, Ngāti Ira and other major tribal…

Apirana Turupa Ngata was born at Te Araroa on the East Coast on 3 July 1874. He had connections with the leaders of Ngāti Porou. His hapū included Te Whānau-a-Te Ao, Ngāti Rangi, Te Whānau-a-Karuai and Ngāti Rākairoa.…

James Mackay, who was of Scots descent, was born in London, England, on 16 November 1831 to James Mackay and his wife, Ann. He arrived at Nelson, New Zealand, on 26 January 1845 on the Slains Castle in the company of…

The distinguished writer and journalist Christine Cole Catley was one of New Zealand’s leading independent publishers of the late twentieth century. She was co-founder of the Parents Centre movement in the 1950s, and an…

Edward William Stafford was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on 23 April 1819, eldest son of Berkeley Buckingham Smith Stafford of Maine, County Louth, Ireland, and his wife, Anne Tytler. Stafford grew up in the leisured,…

Manuera Benjamin Rīwai Couch (or Rīwai-Couch) was known throughout his life, and by his own preference, as Ben Couch. He was born at Lyttelton on 27 June 1925, the first of eight children of a farmer, George Manning…

Pei Te Hurinui Jones was the son of Daniel Lewis, a European storekeeper, and Paretekōrae Poutama of Ngāti Maniapoto. He was born on 9 September 1898 at Harataunga (Kennedys Bay) on the eastern coast of the Coromandel…

Hoani Te Whatahoro Jury, also known as John Alfred Jury, John Alfred Te Whatahoro Jury, Te Whatahoro Jury, and Hoani Turi Te Whatahoro, was born on 4 February 1841 at Rākaukākā, Poverty Bay. He was the eldest son of Te…

The Coates brothers, Edward and Thomas, who sailed into the Waitematā Harbour on 19 October 1866 aboard the Winterthur, came from a long-established Herefordshire gentry family. As younger sons of a large family they…

Muriel Emma Bell was born on 4 January 1898 at Murchison, the daughter of Thomas Bell, a farmer, and his wife, Eliza Sheat. She began her education at Murchison School, where she was a reluctant pupil. Her childhood was…

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…

William Sefton Moorhouse was baptised on 18 December 1825 at Knottingley House, Yorkshire, England, the oldest son of William Moorhouse, a magistrate, and his wife, Ann Carter. He went to sea as a youth in coal-carrying…

Murray Ball created the phenomenally successful ‘Footrot Flats’ cartoon strip, which appeared in more than 120 newspapers worldwide during the 1980s and 1990s and spawned a stage musical, a movie and a wide array of…

James Macandrew, the son of a merchant, Colin Macandrew, and his wife, Barbara Johnston, was baptised in Aberdeen, Scotland, on 18 May 1819. Little is known of his early life; he is said to have attended Ayr Academy and…

Edward James Te Āika Tregerthen, later known as Eruera Tīhema Tirikātene, was born on 5 January 1895 at Te Rakiwhakaputa pā near Kaiapoi. His father, a carpenter, later a skipper of boats, wheat farmer and minister of…