We need your help to trace the families of these brave men from Forbes who gave their lives in World War 1 - Sergeant Henry Alexander Black, and Private Hedley West.
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Are you related to them or do you know the whereabouts of their descendants?
Our interest in these men is because of something that happened nearly 100 years ago.
In January 1920, the director of the Botanic Gardens in Sydney, Joseph Henry Maiden, received a parcel from France, sent to him by Ettie Rout, Secretary of the New Zealand Volunteer Sisters.
The box contained poppy seed gathered in the Somme Valley by the school children of Villers Bretonneux and came with a request that the seed be distributed to the relatives of Australian and New Zealand soldiers who had fallen fighting on the battlefields.
The children wished to convey their deepest gratitude and loving sympathy to the families of those who had given their lives for France so far from their native land.
Both the Melbourne and Christchurch Botanic Gardens also received seed from Miss Rout.
Joseph Maiden sent a letter to the Sydney Morning Herald writing “that I shall be very pleased indeed to send a tiny packet to the relatives of New South Wales soldiers in accordance with this lady’s wishes”.
The letter was reprinted in a number of regional newspapers and written requests from all over the state began to flood in.
The original supply of seed was soon exhausted, prompting Maiden to obtain a further shipment of seed gathered at the end of the following season, both from France and the area around Ypres in Belgium.
The mother of Sergeant Black, Mrs Janet Black, requested some of these poppy seeds, as did Miss Margaret West who was the sister of Private West.
Sergeant Henry Black
Sergeant Henry Alexander Black was born in Forbes and attended Forbes Public School.
He was the eldest son of Mr Alexander and Mrs Janet Black, who lived on North Hill Forbes, and the brother of Private Roy George Black.
He served for 12 months in the Boer War and enlisted in the 11th Battalion in September 1915 in Kalgoorlie Western Australia where he was working as a miner.
His awards include the Military Medal for conspicuous coolness and courage and the Distinguished Conduct Medal for great personal courage at the Battle of Bullecourt 1917.
Regrettably, at 36 years old, he died at Passchendaele, Ypres, Belgium on the 31st October 1917.
There is no known grave but he is commemorated on the Menin Gate Ypres, Belgium.
The memorial is a monument to the 35,000 men of the British Empire who fought in WWI and have no known grave.
Private Hedley West
Private Hedley Arthur West was also born in Forbes and attended Forbes Public School. He lived with his parents, William Perry West and Alice Jane West, in Wambat St before he joined the 45th Battalion in Forbes in January 1916.
After a few months training, at the age of 20 years, his unit left Sydney for Europe. For his war service he was awarded the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.
He was killed at Pozieres in the Somme Sector with his name being recorded on the Australian National Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux, France.
This memorial of Portland stone has the names of 10,885 Australians who were killed in France and have no known grave.
The seeds
Joseph Maiden was a meticulous man, with a methodical mind and working habits.
He kept registers of seeds and plants coming in and out of the Botanic Gardens, and it is from these registers that we have been able to extract the names of all those people who applied for and received poppy seeds to plant in their gardens in memory of their loved ones.
There are no surviving records from either the Melbourne or Christchurch Botanic Gardens detailing how the seed they received was distributed.
We are indeed fortunate that this touching tribute to the Anzacs has survived.
We, at the Forbes Museum and Historical Society, have offered to assist the volunteers at the Berrima District Historical & Family History Society.
They have indexed all the names recorded in the Seed Registers and have begun the task of identifying the soldiers in whose name the families applied for poppy seed. The index is a word-searchable PDF document. It is on this document that we read the names of our Forbes families.
By creating this listing of the names and suburb or township recorded in the Botanic Gardens Seed Register their aim is to identify as many of those listed as possible and where possible obtain addresses, ask the current owners or occupants of these houses to again plant red poppies in the garden.
Descendants may also wish to plant poppies in their current gardens in remembrance of their relatives and in recognition of the sentiment of the children of Villers Bretonneux who first collected the seed almost a century ago.
If you can assist in identifying any of those listed, please contact us at the Forbes Museum or the Berrima Museum, so we can include these details in the index.
The Forbes Museum is in Cross Street and open from 2-4pm daily. Contact them on 6851 6600.