A search is underway for descendants of hundreds of British boys sent out for farming training in New Zealand a century ago. Flock House, a flagship agricultural school in New Zealand was set up 100 years ago. What ever happened to its first cadets?

A search is underway for descendants of hundreds of British boys sent out for farming training in New Zealand a century ago.

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

It's 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.

Listen to the story of Flock House's first farming cadets on Country Life

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

The school, consisting of a grand homestead and 8000 acres, had been established with a 250,000 pound fund - profit from the government's sale of wool during the war.

New Zealand 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 told Country Life.

One hundred and 28 daughters of the seamen were also sent from Britain under the scheme to learn skills like cooking, butter-making, nursing and bee-keeping.

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

"The Fund hoped that they would stay.

"You've just had World War One, 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?…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details