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Youth Sonja Margaret Loveday Vile was born on 11 November 1923 in Wallaceville, Upper Hutt. Her mother, Gwladys Ilma Vile, was a state-registered nurse; her father was Gerald Dempsey, an army major from Cork, Ireland…

George Grey is believed to have been born in Lisbon, Portugal, on 14 April 1812. His father, Lieutenant Colonel George Grey, had been killed eight days before, during an attack by the Duke of Wellington's army on…

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…

One of the great international aviators of the 1930s, Jean Gardner Batten was born on 15 September 1909 in Rotorua, the only daughter of a dentist, Frederick Harold Batten, and his wife, Ellen (Nellie) Blackmore. She…

Maharaia Winiata, commonly known as Maha, was born on 29 September 1912 at Ngāhina pā, near Rūātoki, in the eastern Bay of Plenty. His parents were Winiata Piahana and his wife, Te Ruakawhena Kohu, both of Ngāi…

Lindsay Poole was a forester and senior public servant who guided the New Zealand Forest Service, first as assistant director then as director, during the middle decades of the twentieth century. His career followed an…

James McCosh Clark was born in Beith, Ayrshire, Scotland, on 12 August 1833, the son of Archibald Clark, a merchant, and his first wife, Margaret McCosh, whose father was a wealthy coal mine owner. James arrived in New…

Norman Vazey Douglas was born in Hikurangi, Northland, on 15 March 1910, the son of Ellen Margaret Vazey and her husband, George Nicole Douglas, a police constable. Transfers for his father saw him raised in several…

Humphrey Francis O'Leary was born at Redwoodtown in the Wairau Valley, Marlborough, on 12 February 1886, the son of Irish parents Mary Falvey and her husband, Humphrey John O'Leary, a blacksmith. Before he reached…

Henry Edmund Holland was born on 10 June 1868 at Ginninderra, New South Wales, the second child of farmer Edward Holland and his wife Mary Chaplin. Harry, as he was known, attended a local elementary school until he was…

Julius Vogel was born in London, England, probably on 24 February 1835, the son of Albert Leopold Vogel and his wife, Phoebe Isaac. His mother was the oldest daughter of a Jewish merchant family headed by Alexander…

James Herries Beattie (known as Herries) was the son of Scots immigrants James Beattie and Mary Roden (Rodden) Thomson, who arrived in Otago in 1862 and were married in 1874. After some years of farming, James Beattie…

Thomas Broham is said to have been born on 20 July 1840 into a Roman Catholic family in County Limerick, Ireland, the son of Bridget Corney and her husband, William Broham, a farmer. After a good education he emigrated…

George Fenwick was born in Sunderland, Durham, England, on 1 February 1847, to Robertine Jane Brown, a stationer's daughter, and her husband, Robert Fenwick, a Chartist cabinet-maker. They and their four sons (three…

Robert William Lowry was born at Paeroa on 17 November 1912, the eldest child of Janet (Jessie) Craig Forrest and her Irish husband, Robert William Lowry, a storekeeper, later a farmer and carpenter. In 1926 Bob Lowry…

Ngāpipi Rēweti was an enigmatic and controversial figure. Almost the whole of his recorded life was dominated by competition between Māori living on the Auckland isthmus and European authorities for ownership of land at…

Colin Graham Scrimgeour was born at Wairoa on 30 January 1903, the son of John Graham Scrimgeour, a farmer, and his wife, Robina Maud Clunie. He left school at the age of 11 and unsuccessfully tried to enlist for…

Matiu (Matt) Te Hau was born at Ōmarumutu, near Ōpōtiki, on 11 July 1912, the son of William Turakiuta Cooper of Ngāti Kahungunu, a licensed interpreter, and Kōparepare Matiu, of Ngāti Ruatakenga hapū of Te Whakatōhea.…

Heke Pōkai was born at Pākaraka, near the Bay of Islands, probably after the death of his mother's brother Pōkaia, after whom he was named, at the battle of Moremonui (also known as Te Kai-a-te-karoro and Te Haenga-o-te…

Fintan Patrick Walsh was born Patrick Tuohy at Pātūtahi, Poverty Bay, on 13 August 1894, one of eleven children of farming parents Andrew Tuohy and his wife, Hannah O'Sullivan, both born in Ireland. He was raised a…