The lost boys of post-war farming

• Published date: 24 April 2024
• Publication title: Hastings Leader, The

Dressed in military-style “lemon-squeezer” hats, ties and jodhpurs, they were the sons of seamen who had been killed or disabled during World War I

It is not known how many stayed and made a successful life farming in New Zealand, according to Alasdair Bettles-Hall, one of the descendants who is researching the stories of the first attendees of Flock House.

The first contingent of 25 lads arrived by ship 100 years ago, headed for the new agricultural training centre at Bulls in the Rangitīkei District, which had been set up with money from the wool industry in 1924.

The school, consisting of a grand homestead and 8000 acres (3200ha), had been established with a £250,000 fund — profit from the government’s sale of wool during the war.

Kiwi sheep farmers had earlier set up the New Zealand Sheepowners Acknowledgment of Debt to British Seamen Fund for the benefit of dependants of the men in the Royal Navy and Mercantile Marine who had lost their lives to keep shipping lanes open.

“It was realised it would be a help for widows, sometimes with multiple children, that maybe we should bring the children to New Zealand to train them up to be farmers,” Bettles-Hall said.

Under the scheme, 128 daughters were also sent from Britain to learn skills such as cooking, butter-making, nursing and beekeeping.

After a year’s training at Flock House, being taught every facet of farming in New Zealand by “well-trained agriculturists of their day”, the youths then went on to placements on farms throughout the country.

“The fund hoped that they would stay,” Bettles-Hall said. “You’ve just had World War I, there’s not as many men on the land ... a lot of these sheep stations were in very remote places.

“So I think maybe a subliminal motivation was to provide a labour force for the New Zealand sheep farmers.”

Over the next few years, more than 600 youths came from Britain to train at Flock House which went on to become a flagship agricultural training school for the country, throwing its doors open to local cadets when the flow of young men from England stopped during the Great Depression.

But what happened to all those first cadets, some as young as 15?

With Flock House’s...