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    1. high courts and the first world war
    2. lawrence cook
    3. After a break I am again chasing my Vandenberg ancestors in the area. One of the things I have found is that my grt grt grandfather Henry Vandenberg took libel action in 1916 against the Australian Pictorial Newspaper and a John Michael Myers for libel. After much waiting the National Archives have digitised the record onto their site. The paper published an article in April 1916 referring to Huns and a large number of people with germanic surnames who were in Councils or were J. P.s. Obviously at this stage of the First World War feelings were running high and the article is highly inflammatory. Henry took exception to this obviously and the High Court awarded him 1500 pounds in damages. Given that Henry was a British subject born in Whitechapel (I have a copy of his birth certificate) of Dutch jewish parents who had moved to London from repression in the low countries I can see why he was upset to be labelled as a Hun. As the family arrived in the Beechworth area in 1855 it emphasises how long term and deep seated some prejudices were. My query is whether there are any members of the list who have come across this anti-german feeling in their research and whether it was in fact a feature of that time. I have very little knowledge of social conditions in the 1910s and twenties and wondered whether Henry Vandenbergf's experience was common. Lawrence Cook

    08/19/2005 05:39:07