James and William Mason

James and William Mason founded Mason Bros Nurseries, planted the trees of Auckland's main streets, decorated some of the city's most beautiful gardens and gave generously to charitable causes. Their legacy lives throughout the city.

Walter Fricker

Walter Fricker was born in Somerset, England and came to New Zealand in 1863. He introduced the world’s first airmail postage stamp when he launched a pigeongram service between Great Barrier Island and Auckland in 1897.

David Alexander Hay

Born in Gloucestershire England, Hay was the son of the founder of Montpellier Nurseries and introduced Pinus Radiata to New Zealand. He was an authority on plants and held senior positions in the Auckland Horticulture Society and the New Zealand Institute of Horticulture.

Sir Frank Crossley Mappin

Sir Frank Crossley Mappin was born in England and came to New Zealand in 1908. After trying his hand as a farm cadet and on the North Kaipara gun fields, he bought a 20-acre orchard at Wade (later known as Silverdale).

Sir Algernon Philips Thomas Withiel

Algernon Philips Thomas (the name Withiel was added later) was born in Cheshire, England and graduated MA from Oxford University in 1881. In 1882 he discovered the cause of liver rot in sheep, a finding of great scientific and economic importance. He arrived in Auckland in 1883 to take up the position of Professor of Natural Science at University College, which was newly established. As well as teaching, he became a widely acknowledged expert on many scientific matters.

Thomas (Tom) Henry Ah Chee

Thomas (Tom) Ah Chee was born in Remuera, Auckland but travelled with his parents to Canton, China in 1931, returning to Auckland as an 11-year-old. He was a bright student but his university education to be an architect was cut short by his father’s death, and he took over the family fruit shop. It was there he foresaw that large supermarkets would determine the future of food distribution in New Zealand.

Mary Jane Milne

Mary Jane Milne was born in Ireland and emigrated with her family in 1863. In 1867, despite the economic recession in Auckland, she bought into a millinery and drapery business with her sister Charlotte.

Reuben Charles Porter

Reuben Porter was born in Thames to English parents who emigrated to New Zealand in the early 1880s. The family moved to Christchurch then Auckland in 1892 opening Porter’s Dye Company in Karangahape Road. Reuben attended Beresford Street school leaving in 1903 to work as an apprentice learning the brass foundry and ship repairs trades.

Thomas Brutton Kenderdine

Thomas Kenderdine arrived in Auckland in 1855 having completed his medical training in England. For many years he was in charge of the free Auckland Dispensary to support the sick and poor.

Amy Maria Hellaby

Amy was born in Cheshire, England but by the time she was four her mother and five siblings had all died. She emigrated with her father, John Briscoe, to the Chatham Islands and was sent to board at St Mary’s Convent in Ponsonby where she received a good all-round education.

Henry Edward Partridge

Henry Edward Partridge was one of artist Gottfried Lindauer’s earliest and most dedicated patrons, having amassed a collection of more than 70 paintings by Lindauer, later known as the Partridge Collection.

Woodhouse, (Sir) Arthur Owen

Sir Owen (as he was known) was the architect of the New Zealand Accident Compensation Scheme (ACC). Sir Owen served during World War II as a Motor Torpedo Boat commander. He had many legendary exploits of bravery and initiative associated with his service for which he was awarded the DSC.

Turner, Sir Harvey

Harvey Turner was born on 11 September 1889. He left school at 12 to help his father and two older brothers in business. He looked after the accounts and became the firm's first typist, and a few years later, despite his quiet voice, began auctioneering. At 21 he began travelling to Sydney and the Pacific islands to negotiate with fruit growers.

Preston, Marianne Caughey

Marianne Preston was, along with her first husband William Smith (d. 31 Aug 1912 interred in the same plot) and brother Andrew Caughey, the founder of the famous Auckland department store Smith and Caughey. On her arrival in Auckland from Ireland in 1879 she opened Smith’s Cheap Drapery Warehouse. Her husband worked for another draper until 1881 when, presumably because she had the business sufficiently established, he joined in partnership with her.

Paykel, Maurice

Maurice Paykel was born in Auckland, 1916. Paykel's father, Albert, established an export business dealing in Kauri gum and animal hides. By 1920, his sons, George and Horace, had set up their own mercantile firm, Paykel Brothers, importing a range of industrial products including oils, thermostats, and conveyor belts. When Maurice completed his high school education in 1932, though he had his heart set on a career farming, he duly entered the firm as an assistant, packaging oils and delivering orders.

Kerridge, Robert James

Bob Kerridge was an entrepreneur who saw the potential for exhibiting films and built a successful distribution business based on the chain of cinemas that he owned and operated. His earlier forays into the transport business showed a keen business acumen.

Horton, Sir Henry

Henry Horton was born in Timaru in 1870, the son of newspaper man A.G. Horton. A. G. Horton had interests in the Timaru Herald, the Thames Advertiser, and Auckland’s Southern Cross. He was also in partnership with the Wilsons, proprietors of the New Zealand Herald.

Hellaby, Richard

Co-founder of R. & W. Hellaby Butchers Richard Hellaby was born in Thurvaston, Derbyshire. In 1867 Richard Hellaby followed his older brother William to New Zealand. By 1873 he had saved enough to buy out his employer, F. H. Hammond, and with financial support from Williams, he opened a butcher shop called R. & W. Hellaby on 1 November 1873.

Eady, Lewis Robert

Lewis Eady was an Auckland music dealer. He was active in various music and choral organisations. A very competent double bass player and pianist, Lewis Eady was also one of the early Auckland motorists (from about 1905 onwards) and reportedly, a crack recreational shooter.

Caughey, Sir Thomas Harcourt Clarke

Caughey was a great nephew of Marianne Caughey, founder of the iconic Auckland department of store Smith and Caughey. ‘Pat’ Caughey was a capped All Black in the amateur game era when relative few test matches were played and caps were therefore comparatively rare.

Burnaby, William

Dr Burnaby was a Phrenologist who was in New Zealand to deliver a series of lectures on his speciality ‘science’. It is not clear from the advertising whether he took this seriously or was rather a showman who gave a parody of the phrenologist at work.

Bolt, George Bruce

George Bolt was a pioneer of commercial aviation in New Zealand and as such he made an outstanding contribution that assisted the local application of aerial technology. Bolt was both a trained mechanic and pilot who built and flew his first glider in 1911. He pioneered air mail services with flights to Dargaville, Thames and Whangarei.

Edwin Fairburn

Edwin Fairburn was a pioneer colonist responsible for laying out the town of Oamaru. He also engineered and surveyed the main road north from Takapuna to the Bay of Islands, laying the foundation for the Auckland Roads Department.

Thomas Buddle

Thomas Buddle was a founding partner of the law firm Buddle, Button and Co in Auckland. He was born in the city in 1847, the second son of the Reverend Buddle, an early Methodist missionary.

William Crowther

William Crowther was born in England in 1834 and as a youth was apprenticed as an iron worker. At the time of the Crimean War he and several other apprentices were told by their employer to go to Russia to fit some machinery, but afraid to go, they sailed for the Victorian gold fields in Australia. After working in various occupations in Melbourne, William Crowther arrived in Otago attracted by gold mining prospects, but he engaged in carrying stores to the goldfields.