Mr. Theodore Russell , sometime proprietor of the Wanaka Hotel, was the first, postmaster, and one of the pioneer settlers of Pembroke. He was born in Hobart, Tasmania, in 1845, and died at the early age of thirty-two years at Lake Wanaka. His father, Mr. Henry Russell, arrived in Auckland in the early days of that district, and was engaged in managing sawmills at the Bay of Islands for some years, but afterwards went to Dunolly, Victoria, where his son was educated. About 1862, Mr. T. Russell came over to the West Coast diggings, and subsequently joined the “rush” to Cardrona, Otago. He settled at Lake Wanaka in 1867, and built the hotel, which was the first building erected in Pembroke. Mr. Russell was married, in 1865, to Celia Isabella, eldest daughter of Mr. Elijah Hedditch, page 1038 an old settler, of Hobart. Mrs. Russell claims that her eldest son was the first child born in Pembroke, where the rest of her family have also been born and reared.