A dusty collection of papers unearthed in the Black Country tells an amazing wartime story. Sally Walmsley reports.

As a German living in Britain at the outbreak of the Second World War, Hans Lindau was interned as an enemy alien and promptly shipped to Australia.

He spent the war sketching and noting wildlife on 2,500 sheets of toilet paper, creating one of the country’s most important botanical records.

Now, more than 70 years on, the notes are set to go on show in Australia – after gathering dust under a wardrobe in the Black Country for the last 25 years.

The current owner of the collection, Maureen Miles, only discovered the importance of the work when she visited an exhibition in West Bromwich Library.

She said: “I went along to a local history exhibition and there was a stall run by the Black Country Society where I bought some tea towels with maps of the Black Country, mentioning that they were for family in Australia.

“I was talking to Judith Watkin the secretary of the society, and told her about all the papers which she was very interested in and brought them along to show her.”

She recognised their importance and members of the society helped Maureen to contact relevant bodies to make them aware of the papers. They are now to go on show at Australia’s National Library in Canberra.

Hans Lindau, a German jew, came to England in 1931. He, along with thousands of others, was interned during the Second World War and shipped to Australia where he spent his captivity sketching and noting all the wildlife on what are believed to be sheets of toilet paper.

He settled in Australia and gave his collection to a friend and neighbour – Maureen’s late brother Leo Reynolds.

Maureen and her brother emigrated to Australia in the 1950s, along with other “£10 Poms”. She returned after three years and Leo some years later, bringing Hans’ botany notes with him. They have been with Maureen since he died in 1985.

The archive itself is made up of detailed notes of the botany of Australia, contained within a specially constructed case, along with 11 notebooks and 25 Dunlop Prisoner of War envelopes.

Maureen said: “There’s so much work here. It must have been what kept him sane.”

She was keen to find a good home for the papers and the Black Country Historical Society helped her contact a number of people, including John Teulon, a past president of the International Plant Propagators Society. As well as botanists the papers are also of interest to historians studying the Dunera, the British transport ship which brought more than 2,500 interns to Australia in the 1940s.

The interns, considered ‘enemy aliens’ despite being Jewish and themselves victims of the Nazis, suffered brutality from guards on the ship. Once in Australia they joined other refugees and, with the nickname The Dunera Boys, developed a rich cultural and intellectual programme at their camp, giving concerts and establishing an unofficial university.

Many of those on board went on to distinguished careers in Australia, including Franz Stampfl, the Olympic coach, Hans Buchdahl, Professor of Theoretical Physics and Felix Werder, a music critic.

A representative from the Australian High Commission in London collected the works yesterday.