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Filter biographies using dates, occupations and places related to people's lives.
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1903–1985Girl Guide and Peace Scout leader, teacher, headmistress
Annie Mona Burgin was born at Kirk Michael, on the Isle of Man, on 11 March 1903, the daughter of John Robert Burgin, an Anglican clergyman, and his wife, Henrietta Jane Woollcombe. She came to New Zealand with her family at the age of six, when her father was appointed vicar of the parish of...
Story: Burgin, Annie Mona
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1801–1911Mail carrier, farmer
By his own account Henry Burling was born at Stratford, Essex, England, on 1 May 1801, the son of Thomas Burling, a soap-maker; another account suggests he was born on 5 October 1807, the son of James Burling and Joanna Pike. He worked as a silk and satin printer. On 27 January 1839 he married...
Story: Burling, Henry
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1825–1918Teacher, school principal
Margaret Gordon Huie was born on 22 March 1825, at Edinburgh, Scotland, the eldest child of Eliza Gordon Edgar and her husband, Alexander Huie, an accountant. After private tuition Margaret attended Circus Place School senior classes and later studied languages with private tutors. She worked...
Story: Burn, Margaret Gordon
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1891–1915Military aviator
William Wallace Burn (later known as William Wallace Allison Burn) was the first New Zealand army officer to qualify as a military aviator. He was born on 17 July 1891 at Melbourne, Australia, where his parents, Forbes Burn, a station manager, and his wife, Isabel Ayers, had emigrated soon...
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1850–1919Engineer, sawmiller
John Henry Davis Burnand (known as Harry) was born on 2 December 1850 at Paddington, London, England, the son of John Henry Burnand, gentleman, and his wife, Harriette Davis. The Burnand family emigrated to New Zealand, arriving in Nelson in the Royal Albert on 18 May 1853. They settled in...
Story: Burnand, John Henry Davis
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1902–1979School dental supervisor, journal editor
Norah Telford Drummond was born at Clareville, Wairarapa, on 14 July 1902, the eldest of 10 children of Agnes Cecilia Mary Telford and her husband, Robert Crawford Drummond, a teacher. After leaving Masterton District High School, Norah enrolled in 1919 at the University of Otago. She was one...
Story: Burnard, Norah Telford
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1806/1807?–1860Trader, Pākehā-Māori, showman, lecturer
Barnet Burns claimed to have been born in Liverpool, England; the year of his birth was probably about 1806 or 1807. At the age of 13 or 14 he went to sea as a cabin-boy. He spent some time in Jamaica in the service of Lewis Lecesne, a merchant. Burns later followed Lecesne to England, and was...
Story: Burns, Barnet
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1898–1985Doctor, medical administrator
Born in Blenheim on 27 May 1898, Charles Ritchie Burns was the eldest son of Archibald Douglas Burns, a draughtsman, and his wife, Margaret Mary Direen. He had two sisters and two younger brothers. In him were mixed Scottish Presbyterian and Irish Catholic streams: the latter dominated. From...
Story: Burns, Charles Ritchie
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1805/1806?–1848Murderer
Joseph Burns was born in Liverpool, England, in 1805 or 1806 of Irish parents. He joined the Royal Navy as a ship's carpenter at about the age of 20, and arrived at the Bay of Islands, New Zealand, on the Buffalo in 1840. On 28 July the ship was wrecked at Mercury Bay, and Burns took his...
Story: Burns, Joseph
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1910–1986Agricultural scientist, university lecturer and administrator
Malcolm McRae Burns was born on 19 March 1910 at Ashley Bank, North Canterbury, the child of farming parents John Edward Burns and his wife, Emily Jeffrey. He attended primary schools at Ashley Bank, Fernside and then at West Eyreton, after his parents purchased a fine mixed-cropping farm near...
Story: Burns, Malcolm McRae
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1796?–1871Presbyterian minister, coloniser, community leader
Thomas Burns, the most important religious leader in the early settlement of Otago, was baptised at Mauchline, Ayrshire, Scotland, on 17 April 1796, the son of Gilbert Burns, a farmer and estate manager, and his wife, Jean Breakenrigg, the daughter of a farmer. His father was the brother of the...
Story: Burns, Thomas
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1893–1972Journalist, political activist
Violet Alberta (Berta) Jessie Watson, one of the first women to achieve high office in the New Zealand National Party, was born in Winchester, South Canterbury, on 12 March 1893, the first of two children of Agnes McCaig Baillie and her husband, Andrew Carroll Watson. Her mother died in 1895....
Story: Burns, Violet Alberta Jessie
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1904–1991Teacher, sportsman and administrator, military leader
James Thomas Burrows was born at Prebbleton, near Christchurch, on 13 July 1904, the sixth of seven children of Frederick William Burrows, a storekeeper, and his wife, Sarah Johnson. Most of his childhood was spent at Waiau in North Canterbury where, by 1912, his father had another store. His...
Story: Burrows, James Thomas
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1840–1920Plumber, metalworker, engineer
Alexander Burt was born on 4 April 1840 at Camelon, Stirlingshire, Scotland, the son of Frances (Fanny) Ross and her husband, James Burt, a nailmaker. Later in 1840 the family moved to Glasgow, where Thomas Burt was born. He was baptised in the parish of Barony, Glasgow, on 17 December 1842....
Story: Burt, Alexander
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1893–1968Photographer
Gordon Onslow Hilbury Burt was born in Christchurch on 27 November 1893, the son of Alfred John Hilbury Burt, a wool sorter, and his wife, Annie Pannell. He was raised in Christchurch, and his formal education was completed between 1909 and 1911 at Canterbury College School of Art. In 1915 he...
Story: Burt, Gordon Onslow Hilbury
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1833–1835?–1914Photographer, elocutionist
Alfred Henry Burton was the eldest of four sons of John Burton and his wife, Martha Neal. He was born at Leicester, Leicestershire, England, probably sometime between 1833 and 1835. John Burton had founded the firm of John Burton and Sons, printers and photographers of Leicester, with branches...
Story: Burton, Alfred Henry
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1893–1974Teacher, soldier, war historian, pacifist, Methodist clergyman, writer
Ormond Edward Burton was born in Auckland on 16 January 1893, the son of Mary Alice Beatrice Winn and her husband, Robert Burton, a carter, who was later a market gardener. As a child Ormond learnt the value of hard work and a sense of fun. He also developed a love of the written word and the...
Story: Burton, Ormond Edward
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1908–1985Lithographic draughtsman, rifleman, archer
Recognised in the 1950s as the world’s greatest short-range archer, William John Burton (known as Jim) was born at Hoylake, Cheshire, England on 8 March 1908. The second in a family of seven, at the age of one he came to New Zealand with his parents, William Armistead Burton, a merchant, and...
Story: Burton, William John
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1825–1912Engineer, architect
Maxwell Bury was born on 28 July 1825, at East Retford in Nottinghamshire, England, the son of William Bury, an Anglican clergyman, and his first wife, Harriet Fowler. He spent part of his childhood in Cambridgeshire, where his mother died when he was about two years old. His father...
Story: Bury, Maxwell
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1802–1871Viticulturalist, British Resident, farmer, politician, newspaper editor
James Busby was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on 7 February 1802, the second son of Sarah Kennedy and her husband, John Busby, a mineral surveyor and civil engineer. James Busby studied viticulture in France before accompanying his parents to New South Wales, Australia. The family sailed from...
Story: Busby, James