The little boy a phone call brought home.

Chosen

National Women's Hospital, Auckland · 1966

Alfred Donald Knez was born on 1 September 1966 at National Women's Hospital in Auckland. Our mum, Joyce, received a phone call from the hospital: there was a little boy with a background much like her own, and would she and Dad consider adopting him? They had originally applied to adopt a little girl — a sister for Rina — but they said yes to this little boy without a moment's hesitation.Zvonko — Croatian, from the old country, known here as Johnny — and Joyce went together to meet him. They were overjoyed to have a son; Rina was overjoyed to have a little brother.He came home at three weeks old, on 20 September 1966 — chosen, and cherished, from the very first day.

"You're wrong and I'm right" — and half the time, he was.

A boy good at everything

Avondale & New Windsor, Auckland · 1966–1970s

Alfred grew up in the middle of his two sisters — Rina, older, and Tanya, born in 1968. He was a bright, active boy and a walking encyclopaedia: he'd read all the Tell Me Why books and then quiz his sisters to see if they knew the answers. He always thought he was right, and if you told him otherwise he'd just say, "You're wrong and I'm right." He never changed, either — his daughter Aaria says he was still doing it to the end.He had a hundred interests: drawing, board games, Marvel comics, and his beloved chopper bike. He picked up the guitar at ten, and was a natural athlete — tennis, table tennis, squash, soccer — earning a brown belt in karate as a teenager.Later he became a skilled chess player, and taught the game to his children Apaira and Aaria, his nephew Ivan, and his sister Tanya. Growing up as a whānau, there were strawberry-picking days out at Swanson, grapes and corn on Lincoln Road in Henderson, camping up the Far North at Taipā Beach, and days at the races with Mum and Dad.

He came second in the country for his art — and drew all his life.Image: ⏳ One of Alfred's own sketches, or a school-age photo. (His artwork was displayed at the chapel — the perfect, personal image for this chapter.)

The artist

Avondale, Auckland · 1970s–1980s

Alfred loved his artwork and sketched constantly. His first school was Rosebank Primary in Avondale; when his asthma meant the family moved to New Windsor, he changed to Glenavon Primary, then Avondale Intermediate, and finally Avondale College.He excelled at school and was genuinely gifted at art — he came second in the ASB secondary-schools art competition at the end of his sixth-form year. Some of the sketches he made across his life were placed with him at the chapel — the work of a man who was, as Rina put it, good at anything and everything he put his mind to.

He spent his working life carrying other people.

A calling to care

Auckland → Rotorua · 1980s–1990s onward

After leaving school, Alfred's first job was at Glengyle Knitwear in Kingsland. He went on to become an investment and life-policy insurance clerk, and a restaurant manager in Rotorua. But from about 1993, he found his real calling: the mental-health field became his passion.He worked as a community support worker for Healthcare Rehabilitation, caring for people with traumatic brain and spinal injuries; as a mental-health and addiction support worker for Karldon Trust, Emerge Aotearoa and Te Aroha o Hineāmaru; and as a support worker and care assistant for Gracelands Recruitment Services and Healthcare New Zealand — supporting people young and elderly, in rest homes, residential care, and their own homes. He also worked with young people facing mental-health struggles, abuse and addiction.For a man who found it hard to ask for help himself, he gave an extraordinary amount of it to others.

He went looking for where he came from — and found it.

Back to the whānau

Rotorua & Te Teko · his 20's onward

Sometime in his twenties, Alfred made contact with his four birth brothers — Raukawa, Kōha, David and Eru — and moved down to Rotorua to connect more deeply with his whānau and his birth mother, Charmaine.It was during this time that he met Paula; they moved to Te Teko for a while, and had a daughter together, Aiyana Irimako. A man chosen into one family, reaching back to embrace the other — holding both.

He gave up everything to raise them — and raised two good people.

His greatest joy

Auckland · 2017–2025

In 2017, Alfred's journey shifted — from caring for others to the greatest responsibility and joy of his life: raising two of his children, Aaria and Apaira, full-time. He gave up his job to become a full-time single dad, and from then on they were his everything.Tanya and Rina used to tease him that he ran a "boot camp at home" — he was so structured and organised, his whare always spotless, everything in its place.In time he mellowed, and simply savoured his children — taking them to rugby, basketball and kapa haka. (Alfred had four children in all: Kaelyn, Aiyana, Aaria and Apaira — the last carrying his own father's name, Zvonko, as his middle name.) He was, on top of it all, an amazing cook: he once made a full Christmas roast with all the trimmings, and this very week the family counted more than thirty herbs and spices in his cupboard."If you think you're precise," he once told Mum, "well — I'm twice as precise." Stoic, independent, self-reliant, warm and caring: that was Alfred.

He rests at Mangere Lawn — his whānau welcomes you there.

Moe mai rā

Middlemore Hospital, Auckland · September 2025

One Saturday morning, two policemen knocked on the door in Silverdale, and that was how Rina learned Alfred was very unwell and had been taken to Middlemore Hospital. He'd been unwell for a week or two and hadn't reached out to a doctor until that morning, when he called an ambulance. The doctors told the family he had a bacterial infection — pneumococcal, Streptococcus pneumoniae — and was the sickest person in the hospital.He'd developed pneumonia in his left lung; his heart and kidneys were struggling; he was confused and disoriented. They placed him in an induced coma and took him straight to ICU. Mum, Tanya, Aaria, Apaira and Rina stayed with him through the day and night, and never left his side.He fought a good battle — the doctors said so — and then he passed peacefully at 6:29am on Sunday, 14 September 2025, wrapped in the loving care of his whānau. Alfred rests now at Mangere Lawn Cemetery, Māngere Bridge, where his whānau welcomes all who wish to visit.

Our Loving son, brother, father, and uncle.

The man we remember

We have been truly blessed to have Alfred Donald Knez as our son, brother, father, and uncle.You didn't just raise two kids — you raised two good people. That's a legacy that will last forever, and we can see your spirit live on in them every day."Ka nui taku aroha, Alfred. I love you so much, my brother. I'm missing you heaps already."Moe mai rā — God be with you till we meet again.

Photographs from the Knez family collection.

Sophie and Romualdus in traditional dress, hand-painted on their wedding date — 16 November 1817. With no photograph of Reinhold possible, this is the closest the family has to seeing them together. ⁴

Sophie

St Michaelis Kirche, Lüneburg · 16 November 1817

On 16 November 1817, after the banns were read on two successive Sundays, Reinhold married Sophie Elisabeth Körber at St Michael's Church in Lüneburg — joined together by Pastor Crome. He was 32, a journeyman bricklayer; she was 19, a weaver's daughter from nearby Uelzen who had lost both her parents young. The marriage record still names them both.From this union — a tradesman and an orphaned weaver's daughter, neither with a drop of the royalty the legend would later claim — came the entire family.

The children who carried Reinhold's name across the world.

Left: his three sons — Ludolph, Heinrich Wilhelm and Johannes Anton — with their mother Sophie (top left), photographed in old age in New Zealand.Right: Sophie with her eldest daughter, Doris, c.1848.Note the surname printed in the old family book: "Sobieski" — recorded under the royal name of the legend, not the bricklayer's name Reinhold actually used. ⁵

The children who carried the line

Lüneburg, Kingdom of Hanover · 1818–1830

Reinhold and Sophie had a family together in Lüneburg. Four of their children would carry the line across the world, later anglicising their names in New Zealand:

A small, human detail: when the youngest, Johann Anton, was baptised, his uncle and namesake — Reinhold's brother, Johann Anton "from Riga" — was there to witness it.

7. Portrait of John III Sobieski — unidentified painter, c.1675–1700; Palace Museum in Wilanów; via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

Early Years

The curious, gifted boy — school days, sketches, and the making of the man.

Family Life

The Knez whānau who raised him, and the whānau he found his way back to — both sides of the family that made him whole.

Dad & Whānau

His tamariki were his everything — the family he built, and the aroha he poured into them.

Photographs from the Knez family collection.

Memorial Video

A life of warmth, laughter and whānau — in his own moments.

Alfred Knez - A Life Remembered

Moments From His Funeral

The words spoken to farewell him. Kā nui te aroha.

His Eulogy

Moments From His Funeral

Moments to be treasured forever.

Every family has a story it cannot prove. The Subritzkys' begins with the man who changed his own name.

The Reckoning

Stephen Subritzky spent fifteen years chasing these stories, and wrote down what he found with the same honesty as everything else: there is no proof on paper of any crown. What there is, is a christening record from a village church in Subate, dated the 6th of February 1785 — the son of a landowner named Ignatius Zubrzycki, not a prince.

Click here 👇 to view

Subritzky Family History from
1785 to 1915
(by Stephen Subritzky)

So why did the legend begin? Nobody knows. And the family has never quite been able to let it go — because as one writer of it put it, where there is smoke, there is fire.

We have kept the stories here, exactly as they were handed down, and we have kept them separate from the record. Both are part of who he was.

Alfred rests at Mangere Lawn Cemetery in Māngere Bridge. His whānau warmly welcomes all who wish to visit — to sit with him a while, to share a memory, and to remember a life of warmth, laughter and whānau.You'll find directions below.

• Get Directions

Everyone who knew Alfred carries a piece of him. If you have a memory, a moment, or a message — his whānau would love for you to share it here.

A story, a shared moment, or simply how he made you feel — no words are too small.

Te tama nohinohi i kawea mai ki te kāinga e te waea.

I Kōwhiritia

National Women's Hospital, Tāmaki Makaurau · 1966

I whānau mai a Alfred Donald Knez i te 1 o Hepetema 1966 i te National Women's Hospital i Tāmaki Makaurau. I tae mai tētahi waea ki tō mātou māmā, ki a Joyce, mai i te hōhipera: he tama nohinohi kei reira, he tino ōrite tōna takenga ki tōna ake — ā, tēnā, ka whakaaro rānei rāua ko Pāpā ki te whāngai i a ia? I te tuatahi, he kōtiro tā rāua i tono ai ki te whāngai — hei teina mō Rina — engari, kāore i roa te whakaaro, ka whakaae rāua ki tēnei tama nohinohi.Ko Zvonko — nō Koroātia, nō te whenua tawhito, e mōhiotia ana i konei ko Johnny — rāua ko Joyce i haere tahi ki te tūtaki i a ia.Nui atu tō rāua koa ki te whiwhi tama; nui atu hoki te koa o Rina ki te whiwhi tungāne. I hoki mai ia ki te kāinga i te toru wiki te pakeke, i te 20 o Hepetema 1966 — i kōwhiritia, i manaakitia, mai anō i te rā tuatahi.

"Kei te hē koe, kei te tika au" — ā, i te hawhe o ngā wā, he tika ia.

He Tama Pūmanawa ki ngā Mea Katoa

Avondale & New Windsor, Tāmaki Makaurau · 1966–1970s

I tipu ake a Alfred i waenganui i ōna tuāhine tokorua — ko Rina te mea pakeke, ko Tanya te mea i whānau mai i te tau 1968. He tama mātau, he tama hihiri, ā, he mōhio ki ngā mea maha: kua pānuitia e ia ngā pukapuka Tell Me Why katoa, kātahi ka uiuia e ia ōna tuāhine kia kite mēnā e mōhio ana rātou ki ngā whakautu. I whakaaro tonu ia kei a ia te tika, ā, ki te kī atu koe he rerekē, ka mea noa ia, "Kei te hē koe, kei te tika au." Kāore rawa ia i rerekē — e ai ki tāna tamāhine, ki a Aaria, i pērā tonu ia tae noa ki te mutunga.He rau ōna hiahia: te tā pikitia, ngā tākaro papa, ngā pukapuka pakiwaituhi a Marvel, me tana paihikara chopper e tino arohaina ana. I tīmata ia ki te whakatangi kitā i te tekau o ōna tau, ā, he toa hākinakina taketake ia — te tēnehi, te tēnehi tēpu, te squash, me te poikaha — ā, i whiwhi ia i te tātua parauni i te karate i a ia e taiohi ana.I muri mai, ka tino mōhio ia ki te tākaro chess, ā, i whakaakona e ia tērā tākaro ki āna tamariki, ki a Apaira rāua ko Aaria, ki tana irāmutu, ki a Ivan, me tōna tuahine, a Tanya. I a rātou e tipu ake ana hei whānau, he rā kohi rōpere i Swanson, he karepe me te kānga i Lincoln Road i Henderson, he noho puni i te Tai Tokerau i Taipā Beach, me ngā rā i ngā reihi hōiho me Māmā rāua ko Pāpā.

I tuarua i te motu mō tāna toi — ā, i tā pikitia ia i tōna oranga katoa.Image: ⏳ One of Alfred's own sketches, or a school-age photo. (His artwork was displayed at the chapel — the perfect, personal image for this chapter.)

Te Ringa Toi

Avondale, Tāmaki Makaurau · 1970s–1980s

I tino aroha a Alfred ki tāna mahi toi, ā, i tā pikitia tonu ia. Ko tōna kura tuatahi ko Rosebank Primary i Avondale; nō te nekehanga o te whānau ki New Windsor nā tōna huango, ka huri ia ki Glenavon Primary, kātahi ki Avondale Intermediate, ā, ki Avondale College i te mutunga.I tino kaha ia i te kura, ā, he tino pūmanawa tōna ki te toi — i eke ia ki te tūranga tuarua i te whakataetae toi ā-kura tuarua a te ASB i te mutunga o tōna tau tuaono. Ko ētahi o ngā pikitia i tāngia e ia i tōna oranga i whakatakotoria ki tōna taha i te whare karakia — te mahi a tētahi tangata, e ai ki a Rina, i tino pai ki ngā mea katoa i whakaarohia e ia.

I pau tōna oranga mahi ki te pikau i ētahi atu.

He Karangatanga ki te Manaaki

Tāmaki Makaurau → Rotorua · 1980s–1990s onward

I muri i tana wehe i te kura, ko te mahi tuatahi a Alfred ki Glengyle Knitwear i Kingsland. I muri mai, ka noho ia hei karaka inihua mō ngā haumitanga me ngā kaupapa inihua oranga, ā, hei kaiwhakahaere wharekai i Rotorua. Engari, mai i te tau 1993 pea, ka kitea e ia tōna tino karangatanga: ka riro te ao hauora hinengaro hei tino kaupapa māna.I mahi ia hei kaitautoko hapori mō Healthcare Rehabilitation, e manaaki ana i te hunga i pāngia e ngā whara roro me te tuarā; hei kaitautoko hauora hinengaro me te waranga mō Karldon Trust, Emerge Aotearoa me Te Aroha o Hineāmaru; ā, hei kaitautoko, hei kaiāwhina manaaki hoki mō Gracelands Recruitment Services me Healthcare New Zealand — e tautoko ana i te hunga rangatahi me te hunga kaumātua, i ngā kāinga whakaruruhau, i ngā whare manaaki, me ō rātou ake kāinga. I mahi anō ia me ngā rangatahi e pā ana ki ngā uauatanga hauora hinengaro, ki te tūkinotanga, me te waranga.Mō tētahi tangata i uaua ki a ia te tono āwhina māna anō, he nui whakaharahara te āwhina i hoatu e ia ki ētahi atu.

I rapu ia i tōna takenga mai — ā, i kitea e ia.

Te Hokinga ki te Whānau

Rotorua & Te Teko · mai i ōna tau rua tekau

I tētahi wā i a ia e rua tekau tau ana, ka whakapā atu a Alfred ki ōna tuākana me ōna tēina ā-toto tokowhā — ki a Raukawa, ki a Kōha, ki a David, me Eru — ā, ka neke ia ki Rotorua kia hono ā-ngākau atu ki tōna whānau me tōna whaea ā-toto, ki a Charmaine.I taua wā ka tūtaki ia ki a Paula; ka neke rāua ki Te Teko mō tētahi wā, ā, ka whānau tā rāua tamāhine, ko Aiyana Irimako. He tangata i kōwhiritia ki tētahi whānau, e toro atu ana ki muri ki te awhi i tērā atu — e pupuri ana i ngā taha e rua.

I whakarērea e ia ngā mea katoa kia whakatipuria rāua — ā, tokorua ngā tāngata pai i whakatipuria e ia.*

Tōna Koa Nui

Tāmaki Makaurau · 2017–2025

I te tau 2017, ka huri te ara o Alfred — mai i te manaaki i ētahi atu ki te kawenga nui rawa, ki te koa nui rawa hoki o tōna oranga: te whakatipu i tokorua o āna tamariki, i a Aaria rāua ko Apaira, i ngā wā katoa. I whakarērea e ia tāna mahi kia noho hei pāpā takakau, pāpā wā-katoa, ā, mai i taua wā ko rāua tāna katoa.I whakatoia ia e Tanya rāua ko Rina, e kī ana e whakahaere ana ia i tētahi "puni hōia" i te kāinga — he tino whakarite, he tino tōtika ia, he mā tonu tōna whare, ko ngā mea katoa kei tōna ake wāhi.I te roanga o te wā, ka āhua ngāwari haere ia, ā, ka āta rekareka noa ki āna tamariki — ka kawea rātou e ia ki te whutupaoro, ki te poitūkohu, me te kapa haka. (Tokowhā katoa ngā tamariki a Alfred: ko Kaelyn, ko Aiyana, ko Aaria, me Apaira — ko te whakamutunga e mau ana i te ingoa o tōna ake pāpā, a Zvonko, hei ingoa waenga.) Ā, i runga anō i ēnei katoa, he tino ringawera ia: i tētahi wā i mahia e ia tētahi tunu Kirihimete kātoatoa me ōna āpiti katoa, ā, i tēnei tino wiki, neke atu i te toru tekau ngā otaota me ngā mea kakara i tatauria e te whānau i tāna kāpata.I kī atu ia ki a Māmā i tētahi wā, "Ki te whakaaro koe he tōtika koe, kāti — tōrua atu tōku tōtika." He tangata manawanui, he tangata motuhake, he tangata whakawhirinaki ki a ia anō, he tangata mahana, he tangata atawhai: koia tērā ko Alfred.

Kei te okioki ia i Mangere Lawn — e pōwhiri ana tōna whānau i a koe ki reira.

Moe mai rā

Middlemore Hospital, Tāmaki Makaurau · Mahuru 2025

I tētahi ata Rāhoroi, ka patuki mai ētahi pirihimana tokorua ki te kūaha i Silverdale, ā, koia tērā te huarahi i mōhio ai a Rina kua tino māuiui a Alfred, kua kawea ki Middlemore Hospital. Kua māuiui ia mō te wiki kotahi, mō ngā wiki e rua rānei, ā, kāore anō ia kia toro atu ki tētahi rata tae noa ki taua ata, i tana karangatanga i tētahi waka tūroro. I kī ngā rata ki te whānau he mate huakita tōna — te pneumococcal, te Streptococcus pneumoniae — ā, ko ia te tangata tino māuiui rawa i te hōhipera.Kua pā te niumōnia ki tōna pūkahukahu mauī; e uaua ana tōna manawa me ōna whatukuhu; he pōrahurahu, he pōraru hoki ia. Ka whakamoea ia e rātou ki tētahi koma, ā, ka kawea tōtika ia ki te ICU. Ko Māmā, ko Tanya, ko Aaria, ko Apaira, me Rina i noho ki tōna taha i te ao, i te pō, ā, kāore rawa i wehe atu i a ia.I whawhai ia i tētahi whawhai pai — i pērā te kī a ngā rata — ā, kātahi ka wehe rangimārie atu ia i te 6:29 i te ata o te Rātapu, te 14 o Mahuru 2025, i te awhi aroha o tōna whānau. Kei te okioki a Alfred ināianei i Mangere Lawn Cemetery, i Māngere Bridge, i te wāhi e pōwhiritia ai e tōna whānau te hunga katoa e hiahia ana ki te toro atu.

Tō mātou tama, tungāne, matua, matua kēkē arohanui.

Te Tangata e Maumaharatia ana

Kua tino manaakitia mātou, i te mea ko Alfred Donald Knez tō mātou tama, tō mātou tungāne, tō mātou matua, tō mātou matua kēkē.Ehara i te mea he whakatipu noa i ngā tamariki tokorua — i whakatipuria e koe ētahi tāngata pai tokorua. He taonga tuku iho tērā e mau ake ake, ā, ka kitea e mātou tō wairua e ora tonu ana i roto i a rāua ia rā, ia rā."Ka nui taku aroha, Alfred. E tino aroha ana ahau ki a koe, e taku tungāne. Kua tīmata kē taku tino mokemoke ki a koe."Moe mai rā — kia noho te Atua ki a koe, kia tūtaki anō tāua.

Ngā whakaahua mai i te kohinga a te whānau Knez.

Ngā Tau Tōmua

Te tama pākiki, pūmanawa — ngā rā kura, ngā tuhi pikitia, me te hanganga o te tangata.

Te Ao Whānau

Te tama pākiki, pūmanawa — ngā rā kura, ngā tuhi pikitia, me te hanganga o te tangata.

Pāpā me te Whānau

Ko āna tamariki tāna katoa — te whānau i hangaia e ia, me te aroha i ringihia e ia ki roto i a rātou.

Ngā whakaahua mai i te kohinga a te whānau Knez.

Te Ataata Maumaharatanga

He oranga o te mahana, te katakata, me te whānau — i ōna ake wā.

Alfred Knez - He Oranga e Maumaharatia ana

Ngā Wā o Tōna Tangihanga

Ngā kupu i kōrerotia hei poroporoaki i a ia. Kā nui te aroha.

Tōna Poroporoaki

Kei te okioki a Alfred i Mangere Lawn Cemetery, i Māngere Bridge. E pōwhiri mahana ana tōna whānau i te hunga katoa e hiahia ana ki te toro atu — ki te noho tahi me ia mō tētahi wā, ki te tiri i tētahi maumahara, ki te maumahara hoki ki tētahi oranga o te mahana, te katakata, me te whānau.Kei raro ngā tohutohu huarahi.

• Tikina ngā Tohutohu Huarahi

Kei ia tangata i mōhio ki a Alfred tētahi wāhanga ōna. Mēnā kei a koe tētahi maumahara, tētahi wā, tētahi karere rānei — ka tino koa tōna whānau ki te tiri i tērā ki konei.

He kōrero, he wā i tiritahitia, te āhua noa rānei o tōu ngākau i a ia — ahakoa te iti o ngā kupu, he nui tonu.