Lyn Johnston

The centennial of WWI has raised awareness of New Zealand’s sacrifices during that ‘Great War’ and subsequent conflicts. In 1994, a local historian, the late...

Robert (Big Bob) Ross was a renowned stockman in Albertland during the late 1800s and early 1900s. He was the eldest son of Robert S....

In the late 1890s, Edwin Stanley Brookes Jnr established the first Albertland Museum in the attic of his family home, Minniesdale House, at Wharehine. Fascinated...

From the first years of settlement, Albertland pioneers have celebrated May 29, the date their ships left London’s East India docks for New Zealand. 1887...

Frances Edith Drury was a tiny woman, not five feet tall. She was only 19 when she married Edwin Marcroft in Leeds on 1 May...

By Lyn Johnston, Albertland Museum Edward (Ted) Witheford arrived in New Zealand with his parents and brothers on the Albertlanders ship Gertrude in 1863. He...

Mary Ann Wilkin (known as Polly) was the fifth daughter of a relatively prosperous Fen Country farmer. Born in 1846, Mary Ann had a happy...

The long, hot summer days cause the fire risk to soar and it only takes one spark to cause disaster. At 4.30pm on December 13,...

In January 1890, Auckland and New Zealand both marked their 50th Jubilee with three days of festivities in Auckland. Henry Marsh, his son Harold, 14,...

As the festive season approaches, 100 years since WWI began, I think about of all the young men (and women) who went overseas to fight...