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William Alexander Sim achieved distinction in disparate fields of the law. He was a leading barrister in Dunedin, first full-time president of the Court of Arbitration and chairman of two royal commissions. And he…

In an era when the achievements of women in sport received scant regard from New Zealand newspapers and radio, Dot Simons made the field her own. She was born Dorothy Edith Nash on 16 February 1912 in Greymouth, the…

Born on 21 November 1890 in Wellington, Helen Macdonald Richmond was the daughter of Maurice Wilson Richmond, a solicitor, and his wife, Flora Hursthouse Macdonald, cousins and members of the redoubtable settler ‘mob’…

Mary Simpson was a religious healer and teacher who was largely responsible for establishing the Christian Science church in New Zealand. A strong – some would say autocratic – spiritual leader, she later founded and…

Myrtle May Simpson was born in Christchurch on 18 April 1905, the daughter of Amelia Snell and her husband, Henry Simpson, a foreman of works. Growing up in Christchurch’s eastern suburbs, she received her primary…

William Livingstone Hatchwell Sinclair was born at Kirkmanshulme near Manchester, Lancashire, England, on 18 February 1880, the son of Eliza Maria Sandford and her husband, Archibald Sinclair, a shipping merchant. His…

Andrew Sinclair was born at Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland, on 13 April 1794, the son of John Sinclair, a weaver, and his wife, Agnes Renfrew. He never married. From 1814 to 1818 Sinclair studied medicine and surgery…

Elizabeth McHutchison, usually known as Eliza, was born in Glasgow, Scotland, probably on 26 April 1800. She is said to have been the daughter of Jean Robertson and her husband, the merchant James McHutchison. The…

John Sinclair, the eldest son of Mary Ann Henderson and her husband, John Sinclair, a carpenter, was born in Olrig, Caithness, Scotland, on 18 September 1843. He was educated at Olrig parish school. Nothing else is…

In the second half of the twentieth century, Keith Sinclair transformed how New Zealanders understood themselves and their history. A prominent poet and New Zealand’s most important historian of the 1950s and 1960s, his…

Frederick Sinclaire was born in Papakura Valley near Auckland on 10 July 1881, the son of Irish parents Mary Carson and her husband, John Sinclaire, a farmer. The Sinclaires were poor, but at 11, Frederick, a pupil at…

Phuman Singh, known in New Zealand as Phomen, was born in the Punjab, India, probably in 1869 or 1870, the second of three sons of a Sikh peasant farming family. He was the son of Bela Singh, a Jat by caste and Gill by…

Born in Dunedin on 4 May 1911, the son of James Sinton, a butcher, and his wife, Louisa Matilda Hellyer, Walter James Sinton was educated at Albany Street School and Otago Boys’ High School. For the first 10 years after…

Eleonora Vera Lazarek, who was known in New Zealand as Nora Sipos, was born on 7 September 1900 in Černovice, in the Czech lands of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. She was one of six daughters of Catholic parents Johan…

Richard Sissons came to New Zealand in 1866 to join his brother Robert, who was farming at Kamo, near Whangarei. Born at Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire, England, on 17 May 1819, Richard was the sixth child of the…

Isabella Coupar (the second name, Flora, was added later) was born at Ninewells near Dundee, Angus, Scotland, probably in 1842 or 1843, the daughter of Margaret Mitchell, a jute spinner, and Robert Coupar. Her mother…

Frederick William Adolphus Skae was born at Edinburgh, Scotland, on 14 May 1842, the son of David Skae and his wife, Sarah Malcolm Macpherson. His father was the physician superintendent of the Royal Edinburgh Asylum…

George Waldemar Skjellerup was born at Cobden, Victoria, Australia, on 14 February 1881, the youngest of 13 children of Margaret Williamson and her husband, Peder Jensen Skjellerup, a farmer who died before George's…

The fifth chief justice of New Zealand, Charles Perrin Skerrett, was born probably on 2 September 1863 in India, the son of Peter Joseph Skerrett, a quartermaster sergeant, and his wife, Margaret Wilkinson. In 1875…

William Skey was born in London, England, probably on 8 April 1835, the son of William Fawcett Skey and his wife, Harriet Skey. William Fawcett Skey, a barrister, died about a year after his son's birth. Thereafter it…