Kendall, Thomas (1778-1832), a British teacher and missionary, helped to compile the first dictionary of the Māori language. He was also the first person to become a resident missionary in New Zealand.
Kendall was born on Dec. 13, 1778, in North Thoresby, Lincolnshire, England. He went to Australia in 1813 as a missionary for the Church Missionary Society. Early in 1814, Kendall and another missionary visited New Zealand to investigate the possibility of establishing a mission. They set up a mission near the Bay of Islands. Kendall opened New Zealand’s first school in August 1816. He returned to Australia in 1827 and died in a shipwreck in 1832. Kendall was the grandfather of the Australian poet Henry Clarence Kendall.
