Almost 100 years ago, the first of 759 orphaned sons and daughters of fallen British WW1 sailors travelled halfway around the world to Bulls, NZ, in search of a prosperous life on the land.
Although this story might not resonate with many, for one man, Alasdair Bettles-Hall, it is of existential significance, as his father, Victor Richard Charles Hall, was one of the orphans who arrived at Flock House Farm Training School in Bulls, and later built a life as a farmer and labourer around the region.
Little did Alasdair know how important his father’s journey would be to his own – from leading him back to the Portsmouth Docks in 1988 where his father started his journey, to finding and reuniting his now late father with his sister and other family members a year later, and subsequently settling in the UK.
Now, leading up to the 100th Centenary of Flock House in 2024, Alasdair’s efforts are being concentrated on finding and telling the stories of other descendants of orphans and cadets who passed through the gates of Flock House, and he believes there will be many not dissimilar to his own.
“So my Dad, at the age of 15, with his little suitcase, off he goes [from Portsmouth, UK] and next minute he’s in Bulls in NZ to start this completely new life,” Alasdair said.
“So the whole objective of this project for me is to, in some way or another, track down the descendants of the orphans, and give them the opportunity to tell their families story like I could.”
Alasdair has invested a significant amount of his time collecting old archives and undertaking research, as well as having a website built in a bid to connect these descendants and help them tell their unique Flock House stories.
Flock House became an internationally regarded all-round farm training school, and to understand its origins we need to go all the way back to NZ’s wool marketing efforts during WW1.
During WW1, all wool was sold to the Imperial Government at a fixed price, and towards the later stages of the conflict there was a surplus of wool to war requirements.
This surplus of wool was then sold on the open market and fetched higher prices than initially expected. Because of this it was set out that until one year after the war had ended, NZ Wool Growers (NZWG) would receive a fixed average price for their wool and any profits would be shared equally between the growers and the Government.
In response, during the later stages of the war industry leaders began advocating that the growers portion of the surplus profits should be used in some way to repay the British Naval Forces and Mercantile Marines who paid the ultimate sacrifice while protecting these shipping lanes.
The proposal was well received and over 2600 NZWGs came together for the greater good, eventually fundraising around £237,000 pounds, a significant sum in its day.
It was then decided that the funds would be used to purchase the land and facilities in the early 1920s that would be used to equip the orphaned sons and daughters of these British Sailors with the skills needed for a life on the land.
“We also can’t ignore the other 3000 people who went through the gates over the years, Flock House made them a farmer, and so they are most certainly part of the story.”
Alasdair Bettles-Hall
Over the next 50 years Flock House would become a world-class agricultural training facility, with most cadets earning jobs prior to graduation.
The school operated right up until 1988, educating thousands of Kiwi farmers until it was forced to close down due to financial issues amid skyrocketing interest rates and a loss of subsidies in the agricultural sector.
Alasdair believes not everyone knows the story of Flock House, and is especially interested in helping not only descendants of the orphans understand its significance to them, but also other cadets and students, along with their descendants.
“We also can’t ignore the other 3000 people who went through the gates over the years, Flock House made them a farmer, and so they are most certainly part of the story,” he said.
And when you do speak to some of the ones that have been there, they will tell you that Flock House was the best time of their life.”
Leading up to the 100th Commemoration of Flock House, a website, which Alasdair had specifically built to allow people associated with Flock House to see lists of past orphans and cadets, reach out and tell their story through its blogging capability, was recently launched.
Descendants of orphans, cadets and students are encouraged to head to the website and read more about the history of Flock House, as well as post any information or resources they have, to help Alasdair build the full story of Flock House Farm Training School.
