[PW] Politically Incorrect Town Names?

[Peter Macinnis]

Chris Corston wrote:
> I lived in Kitchener, Ontario   for a number of years. Settled by many 
> Germans in the 19th century, Kitchener was called Berlin until WWI, when 
> there was so much anti-German sentiment expressed that the name was changed 
> to Kitchener in 1916.
> There was talk from time to time of changing the name back to Berlin, but as 
> far as I know that has never come to anything much.

I have plagiarised this from my travel blog, which I guess is OK.

After 1848, lots of Germans settled in Australia, many of them in small 
parts of South Australia, but the ones who went to the gold fields went 
mainly to an area in New South Wales dubbed Germanton, which was in 
existence by 1858. Come World War I, though, nobody liked the name any 
more, and after some shilly-shallying, it was renamed Holbrook, after Lt 
Norman Holbrook, RN, who took a submarine in, sank a Turkish battleship, 
and escaped, for which he was given a Victoria Cross. Here was a hero, 
suitable for naming a town after.

When the Australian submarine HMAS Otway was scrapped, a subscription 
was taken up, and $100 000 came from Holbrook's widow, and now the 90 
metre sub lives in ex-Germanton, a warning to marauding Huns who pass up 
and down the highway. It seems to have scared them off, as none have 
been reported since.



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