Nine decades ago the Royal Family switched to an English-sounding name because of anti-German feeling, as did some of their subjects. Is there an echo of this predicament today?
In this era of the carousel of mass migration, family names are more important than ever. When we alter them we lose a little bit of where we came from.
Yet 90 years ago, perhaps Europe's most famous family decided to change its name, backed into a corner by a public increasingly hysterical about the enemy within. On 18 July 1917 the Times newspaper carried a royal proclamation introducing the name Windsor and dropping "all German titles and dignities".
Since the marriage of Victoria - the last of the Hanovers - to Prince Albert, Britain's royal family had been "of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha", or Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. In a time of brutal war with Germany, a more German family name would be hard to find. After three long years of World War I, anti-German feeling had approached fever pitch, fuelled by wild tales of alleged German atrocities.
In 1915, with the war less than a year old, the sinking of the liner Lusitania by a German submarine - with the loss of almost 1,200 lives - prompted a fresh wave of outrage in Britain, as well as the US and the Empire. The consequences for Germans in Britain were grave. Days of anti-German rioting in London, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle and elsewhere saw Germans menaced and buildings wrecked.
So many bakers' shops were destroyed in the East End of London, with bags of flour emptied and loaves smashed in the street, that a local shortage of bread immediately followed.
