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1880–1973Customs official
Hugh Sherwood Cordery was born at Malvern Wells, Worcestershire, England, on 27 March 1880. His orchardist father, William Cordery, had emigrated to Christchurch, New Zealand, the previous year, gaining employment as a market gardener. William's wife, Edith Alice Arkwell, and their three sons...
Story: Cordery, Hugh Sherwood
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1875–1948Painter, trade unionist
Frederick Daniel Cornwell was born in Hamilton, Lanarkshire, Scotland, on 30 September 1875, the son of Susannah Stammers and her husband, Daniel Cornwell, a sergeant in the 73rd Regiment of the British Army. After serving an apprenticeship as a painter and decorator in southern England, he...
Story: Cornwell, Frederick Daniel
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1836–1923Clerk, station manager, sawmiller, storekeeper, dairy manufacturer
William Wescombe Corpe (generally known as Wescombe) was born at Stoke St Gregory, Somerset, England, on 29 April 1836, the second child of Ann Wescombe and her husband, Joshua Corpe, a farmer. Following a local education he worked with his brother, Joseph, as a provision merchant at Windsor....
Story: Corpe, William Wescombe
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1865–1935Farmer, stock dealer, racehorse owner, businessman, politician
James Randall Corrigan was born at Woodend, North Canterbury, New Zealand, on 10 July 1865, the son of Samuel Corrigan, a contractor, and his wife, Susan Sanderson (née Randall). Around 1878 the family moved to Tinwald. James left school aged 10 and was employed mainly in farm work, including a...
Story: Corrigan, James Randall
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1902–1972Businessman, local politician
Born in Napier on 25 February 1902, Thomas Allan Napier Corson was the second of six children of Mary Barbara Laura Waters and her husband, Thomas Corson. His father had established a successful business as a merchant and manufacturer’s agent in Napier in the late 1890s, and transferred his...
Story: Corson, Thomas Allan Napier
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1888–1976Engineer, university lecturer, soldier, company director
Silston Cory-Wright was born at Sigglesthorne Hall, Hornsea, Yorkshire, England, on 22 September 1888, the son of George Henry Cory Wright and his wife, Ellen Green Wade. He was registered by his father at birth as George Sigglesthorne Wright, but his mother disapproved and he was baptised...
Story: Cory-Wright, Silston
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1879–1970Tailoress, union leader
Alice Eleanor Cossey was born on 8 November 1879 at Drury, Auckland, New Zealand, the eighth of nine children of Solomon Cossey, a shoemaker, and his wife, Martha Bragg Martin. She inherited an interest in industrial affairs from her father, who was an ardent Liberal–Labour supporter. While she...
Story: Cossey, Alice Eleanor
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1852–1920Teacher, soldier, scout leader
David Crosgrove was born in Scotland at Crosshill, Ayrshire, probably on 20 January 1852, the eldest child of weavers James Crosgrove and his wife, Elizabeth Campbell. The family surname was changed to Cossgrove about 1860. When David was seven his family sailed to New Zealand on the Alpine,...
Story: Cossgrove, David
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1912–1964Linguist, soldier, diplomat, university professor, alleged spy
Born in Auckland on 31 January 1912, Desmond Patrick Costello was the son of Dublin-born grocer Christopher Costello and his Australian wife, Mary Woods. An outstanding scholar, he attended Auckland Grammar School (1923–27) and Auckland University College (1928–31), graduating MA in 1932. That...
Story: Costello, Desmond Patrick
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1885–1970Geologist, geomorphologist, university professor, writer
Charles Andrew Cotton, born in Dunedin on 24 February 1885, was the only son of Scottish-born Margaret Thomson McCallum and her husband, Charles Henry Cotton, a Cornish mariner. His parents had met while sailing to New Zealand in the early 1880s and were married in Dunedin in February 1884....
Story: Cotton, Charles Andrew
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1887–1971Writer, poet, spiritualist
Violet May Grainger was born in Napier on 17 May 1887. She was the youngest of eight children of Eliza Jane Fleetham and her husband, George William Grainger, a civil engineer who was employed by the Napier Harbour Board as clerk of works for the construction of the breakwater. By the time she...
Story: Cottrell, Violet May
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1900–1997Projectionist, film-maker, inventor
Edwin Coubray was born at Eastern Bush, Southland, on 19 October 1900, the third of four sons of Nicholas Coubray and his wife, Minnie Flowers. His father was a railway labourer and the family moved often. Edwin, known as Ted, was a six-year-old schoolboy at Orepuki, near Riverton, when he saw...
Story: Coubray, Edwin
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1925–1996Nō Ngāi Tahu; he kaihanga whare, he kaikānataraki kutikuti hipi, he āpiha poropeihana, he kaihautū hapori, he kaitōrangapū, he mihinare Mōmona
Ā pau noa ōna rā he mea karanga kē te tangata nei a Mānuera Benjamin Rīwai Couch (Rīwai-Couch rānei) ko Pene Kaute (Ben Couch), te īngoa i hiahia kētia e ia. I whānau a Pene Kaute ki Te Whakaraupō (Lyttelton) i te 27 o Hune o te tau 1925, ko ia rā te mātāmua o ngā tamariki tokowaru a te tangata...
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1903–1963Novelist, short-story writer, poet, bookseller
James Francis Courage was born in Christchurch on 9 February 1903, the son of Frank Hubert Courage, a sheepfarmer, and his wife, Zoë Frances Peache. He grew up on the family farm, Seadown station, near Amberley, becoming a boarder at Mr Wiggins’s preparatory school in Christchurch and later,...
Story: Courage, James Francis
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1914–1979Clerk, soldier, prisoner of war, collaborator
Roy Nicolas Courlander was born in London on 6 December 1914. His mother, Edith Cater, married Leonard Henry Courlander, a cinematographer, in London on 4 November 1920. They divorced in 1933 and Roy went to live with Leonard Courlander in the New Hebrides. In November 1938 he arrived in New...
Story: Courlander, Roy Nicolas
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1846–1933Draper, businessman, city councillor, philanthropist
John Court was born at Bradley Green, Worcestershire, England, on 21 January 1846. He was the fourth of nine children of Jane Boucher and her husband, William Court, a farmer who later became an innkeeper in nearby Feckenham. John was educated at the Feckenham charity school. When he was 14 the...
Story: Court, John
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1852–1935Engraver, stamp designer
Alfred Ernest Cousins was born in the Channel Islands at St Helier, Jersey, on 24 October 1852, the son of Elizabeth Coutanche and her husband, Peter Cousins, a carpenter. From 1868 he served as an apprentice in London with Samuel Stevens, an engraver and brass plate manufacturer, until May...
Story: Cousins, Alfred Ernest
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1870–1943Journalist, historian
In the first 40 years of the twentieth century James Cowan was one of New Zealand's most widely read non-fiction writers. He wrote over 30 books and hundreds of articles for newspapers and magazines, mainly about New Zealand's ancient and recent past, its resources and scenic attractions....
Story: Cowan, James
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1860–1950Temperance campaigner, social reformer, lecturer, writer
Betsy Vickery (better known as Bessie) was born on 10 June 1860 at Daylesford, Victoria, Australia, the daughter of Susan Emma Maunder (née Dungey) and her husband, Henry Vickery, a butcher. When Bessie was eight her mother died and she and her six siblings were separated and sent to live with...
Story: Cowie, Bessie Lee
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1835–1902Church and community worker
Eliza Jane Webber was born in England, probably on 6 October 1835, the daughter of William Webber, a surgeon, and his wife, Eliza Preston. The precise place of her birth is unknown; it may have been Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. On 20 July 1869 at Spring Grove, Middlesex, she married William Garden...
Story: Cowie, Eliza Jane