Advanced Biographies Search
Filter biographies using dates, occupations and places related to people's lives.
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1829–1837?–1882Prostitute, character
Barbara Weldon, who was to become one of the more colourful characters on the West Coast, was born in County Limerick, Ireland, probably between 1829 and 1837. By 1861 she was in Melbourne, Australia, where she made a number of court appearances for drink-related offences, and was described as...
Story: Weldon, Barbara
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1826–1829?–1894Police officer
Thomas King Weldon was born either at Cork or at Carrick-on-Shannon, County Leitrim, Ireland, probably some time between 1826 and 1829. He was the son of Patrick Campbell Weldon, an inspector of police, and his wife, Mary King. He married Eliza Simmons in Geelong, Victoria, Australia, on 24...
Story: Weldon, Thomas King
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1814?–1893Whaler, merchant, coloniser, adventurer
Edward Weller was baptised at Folkestone, Kent, in England, on 29 July 1814. He was the son of Joseph Weller and his wife, Mary Brooks. There were six children of this marriage; Edward was the third of three sons, and was later in partnership with his elder brothers, Joseph Brooks (1804–1835)...
Story: Weller, Edward
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1909–1999Surveyor, prospector, geologist, university professor
Harold William Wellman was born in Devonport, Devon, England, on 25 March 1909, the son of May Kinglake Hoare and her husband, Evan Edward Wellman, an engineer in the Royal Navy. He went to primary school in Chard, Somerset, and at the age of 10 entered Ilminster Grammar School. In 1927 the...
Story: Wellman, Harold William
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1863–1933Teacher, feminist, community worker, city councillor
Ada Pike was born at Shepherd's Green, near Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, England, on 29 April 1863, the daughter of Maria Beckett and her husband, William Henry Pike, a journeyman wheelwright. In 1873 she travelled on the Merope with her parents, three sisters and one brother to New Zealand...
Story: Wells, Ada
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1836–1927Farmer, auctioneer, commission agent, mayor
Robert Wellwood was born in County Kilkenny, Ireland, probably on 21 May 1836, into a Protestant farming family. His parents were Ann Proctor and her husband, Ambrose Wellwood. Like many young Irish of his time Robert decided to try his luck in New Zealand, and took a passage on the Queen of...
Story: Wellwood, Robert
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fl. 1860–1880Ngāti Tarāwhai carver
Known as Wero Tāroi, Wero Mahikore, Karu, and Wero, this master carver of Ngāti Tarāwhai of Te Arawa was one of the greatest Māori carvers whose work is now known. Few facts about Wero Taroi's life have been recorded, yet so great was his name as a carver, that the name Wero has been attached...
Story: Wero Tāroi
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1885–1960Farmer, soldier, memoirist
Herbert Horatio Spencer Westmacott, known as Spencer, was born in Christchurch, New Zealand, on 10 November 1885, to a middle-class family of limited means. His mother, Ada Janet Depree, was of Huguenot descent. She had defied her family to marry Herbert Westmacott, in preference to the more...
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1828–1905Ngāti Rākaipaaka; Mormon missionary
Hirini Te Rito Whaanga was born on Māhia Peninsula, according to most sources in 1828, the eldest son of Īhaka Whaanga, a prominent Ngāti Rākaipaaka and Ngāti Kahungunu leader, and his wife, Te Haka Rākātō. He was trained in the whare wānanga at Waikawa (Portland Island) and worked in the...
Story: Whaanga, Hirini Te Rito
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?–1875Ngāti Rākaipaaka leader, assessor, military leader
Īhaka Whaanga, born perhaps late in the eighteenth century, was the son of Te Rātāu of Ngāti Rākaipaaka and Ngāti Kahungunu. Te Rātāu was killed and eaten in a conflict with Whakatōhea at Ōhiwa and his own relative Mātenga Tūkareaho of Nūhaka. Whaanga was the youngest and only survivor of six...
Story: Whaanga, Īhaka
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1916–1996Ngāti Māmoe, Waitaha and Ngāi Tahu; guide, soldier, launch and tug master, factory manager, community leader
Robert Agrippa Moengaroa Waitiri (later Whaitiri), commonly known as Bob, was born in Bluff, Southland, on 9 May 1916. Through his parents, Robert Agrippa Waitiri, an oysterman, and his wife, Mariam (Miriam) Effie Te Aroha Tōpi Pātuki, he could claim links with Ngāti Māmoe, Waitaha and Ngāi...
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1912–1996Ngāti Mutunga and Ngāi Tahu; master mariner, community worker
Te Waari (Ward) Kahukura Whaitiri was born at Kairākau, Chatham Islands, on 11 September 1912, to Meriana Ngāpohe Rāwiri of Ngāti Mutunga and Ngāi Tahu, and her husband, Te Wera William Whaitiri, a labourer and seaman, of Ngāi Tahu. His father was a relative of the Ruapuke Island Whaitiri...
Story: Whaitiri, Te Waari Kahukura
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1819–1907Soldier, diarist
Alexander Whisker was born at Markethill, County Armagh, Ireland, on 22 July 1819. He was the son of Catherine Jenkins and her husband, James Whisker. He enlisted in the British Army on 26 May 1838 and was posted to the 58th Rutlandshire Regiment of Foot. He married Flora Cook: it is not known...
Story: Whisker, Alexander
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1812–1891Lawyer, entrepreneur, politician, premier
Frederick Whitaker was born at Manor House, Bampton, Oxfordshire, England, on 23 April 1812, the son of a magistrate, Frederick Whitaker, and his wife, Susanna Humfrey. He married Jane Augusta Griffith, stepdaughter of Alexander Shepherd, the colonial treasurer, at St Paul's Church, Auckland,...
Story: Whitaker, Frederick
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1884–1976Teacher, local historian
During her long career as a country school teacher, Mabel Whitaker made a lasting impression on many hundreds of pupils. Born Mabel Wilson at Belfast, near Christchurch, New Zealand, on 11 May 1884, she was the daughter of Margaret Boyce and her husband, Edward Robert Ward Wilson, a farmer....
Story: Whitaker, Mabel
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1838–1922Master mariner, ship owner
William Laird Whitby was born to James Whitby, a shopkeeper, and his wife, Mary Laird, at Helhoughton, Norfolk, England, probably on 30 January 1838. He was baptised there on 11 February. Educated in Lynn Regis (Kings Lynn), William joined the British merchant service as an apprentice in 1853...
Story: Whitby, William Laird
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1875–1963Printer, bookseller, publisher
Apprenticed as a printer to his father's firm at about the age of 14, for more than 70 years Bertie Ernest Hawkes Whitcombe was associated with Whitcombe and Tombs Limited, which for most of that time dominated bookselling, printing and publishing in New Zealand. He was born in Christchurch on...
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1903–1984Artist, art teacher
Anna Lois White was born in Auckland on 2 November 1903, the daughter of Annie Phillipps and her husband, Arthur Herbert White, an architect. Both the White and the Phillipps families had helped establish Methodism in New Zealand, and her mother was a leading member of the Mount Albert...
Story: White, Anna Lois
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1909–1984Piano tuner and repairer, advocate and worker for the blind
Cyril Charles William White was born in Hastings, Hawke’s Bay, on 7 September 1909. His parents, Ernest Alfred White, a carpenter, and his wife, Edith Mary Ritter, had four children; two, Cyril and his elder sister Gladys, suffered from congenital glaucoma. When Cyril was five, he and Gladys...
Story: White, Cyril Charles William
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1847–1937Teacher, educationalist, university professor
David Renfrew White was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on 21 June 1847, the son of James Wilson White, a carpenter, and his wife, Agnes Renfrew. He moved to Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) with his family in 1853, settling first in Launceston, then in Hobart. Here he attended Chalmers Presbyterian...
Story: White, David Renfrew