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1905–1981Teacher, school inspector, educationalist
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 school education at East Christchurch School and New Brighton School. After...
Story: Simpson, Myrtle May
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1794–1861Naval surgeon, naturalist, colonial secretary
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 at the University of Glasgow, at L'Hôpital de la Charité in Paris, and at the...
Story: Sinclair, Andrew
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1800–1892Homemaker, farmer, plantation owner
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 family name was sometimes spelt McHutcheson. Eliza grew up in one of the city's...
Story: Sinclair, Elizabeth
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1843–1925Carpenter, builder, station manager, harbourmaster
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 known of his early life. On 13 October 1863 he arrived at Lyttelton, New...
Story: Sinclair, John
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1922–1993Historian, poet
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 work was energised by a deep commitment to New Zealand and a strong cultural...
Story: Sinclair, Keith
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1880–1964Military leader
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 parents later divorced, and after his mother married George Burgess, a...
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1881–1954Unitarian minister, pacifist, social critic, university professor, essayist
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 Newton East School, won the Rawlings Scholarship, which gave him free tuition...
Story: Sinclaire, Frederick
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1869/1870?–1935Confectioner
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 sub-caste, and his wife, Sundar. Phomen was brought up in Chirak, a large...
Story: Singh, Phomen
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1911–1980Butcher, musical retailing manager, percussionist, broadcaster, concert impresario
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 leaving school he worked in his father’s butchery. He played cricket,...
Story: Sinton, Walter James
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1900–1988Businesswoman, humanitarian, welfare worker
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 Karl Lazarek, a foundry worker, and his wife, Huberta Privrel. Eleonora grew...
Story: Sipos, Eleonora Vera
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1819–1893Doctor, Anglican lay reader
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 marriage of Elizabeth Dove and Thomas Sissons, a merchant. The family were of...
Story: Sissons, Richard
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1842/1843?–1919Domestic servant, farmer, philanthropist
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 claimed to be related to Dame Nellie Melba (who was born Helen Porter...
Story: Siteman, Isabella Flora
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1842–1881Psychiatrist, health administrator
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 and was well known as a humane psychiatric doctor. Frederick studied medicine...
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1881–1955Businessman, company director, industrialist
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 third birthday. George left school aged 12 to be apprenticed without pay to a...
Story: Skellerup, George Waldemar
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1863–1929Lawyer, judge
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 Skerrett's family came to Wellington, New Zealand, where his father obtained...
Story: Skerrett, Charles Perrin
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1835–1900Chemist, poet
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 seems that guardians were responsible for the boy's upbringing and formal...
Story: Skey, William
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1874–1940Policeman, athlete
Arthur Skinner and his brother Lewis both had lengthy careers in the New Zealand Police Force. Although their talents were quite different, each made a distinctive contribution to the maintenance of law and order in the early twentieth century. They were the 8th and 11th of 12 children of...
Story: Skinner, Arthur
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1886–1978Soldier, ethnologist, university lecturer, museum curator and director, librarian
Henry Devenish Skinner (known as Harry or HD) was born at New Plymouth on 18 December 1886, the youngest of three children of Margaret Bracken Devenish and her husband, William Henry Skinner. His father, a surveyor for the Crown Lands Department, had a keen interest in Maori curios. He was a...
Story: Skinner, Henry Devenish
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1909–1991Plumber, politician, trade unionist
Thomas Edward Skinner was born in Mangaweka on 18 April 1909, the eldest son of Alice Chalk and her husband, Thomas Edward Skinner, a tinsmith and plumber. He had two elder sisters and two younger brothers. Skinner’s father was South African and his mother Australian; they had emigrated to New...
Story: Skinner, Thomas Edward
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1857–1946Surveyor, historian, ethnographer
William Henry Skinner was born in New Plymouth, New Zealand, on 26 February 1857, the son of Prudence Veale and her husband, Thomas Kingwell Skinner, a butcher. Both were among the pioneer settlers who had emigrated from Devon to Taranaki in 1841. William was educated at Schofield's private...
Story: Skinner, William Henry