Harold Holt - Memorials

Memorials

Harold Holt is most famously commemorated by the Harold Holt Swim Centre in the Melbourne (Australia) suburb of Glen Iris. The complex was under construction at the time of Holt's disappearance, and since he was Malvern's local member, it was named in his memory. The irony of commemorating Holt with a swimming pool has been a wry source of amusement to many Australians.

In 1968 the newly commissioned United States Navy Knox class destroyer escort USS Harold E. Holt (FF-1074) was named in his honour. She was launched by Holt's widow Dame Zara at the Todd Shipyards in Los Angeles on 3 May 1969, and was the first American warship to bear the name of a foreign leader.

In 1969 a plaque commemorating Holt was bolted to the seafloor off Cheviot Beach after a memorial ceremony. It bears the inscription:

In memory of Harold Holt, Prime Minister of Australia, who loved the sea and disappeared hereabouts on 17 December 1967.

Other memorials include:

• the suburb of Holt, Australian Capital Territory
• the Naval Communication Station Harold E. Holt
• the Division of Holt, an electoral district in the Australian House of Representatives in Victoria
• a sundial and garden in the Fitzroy Gardens, Melbourne
• a wing for boarders at Wesley College, Melbourne
• the Harold Holt Fisheries Reserves – five protected areas in southern Port Phillip, located at Swan Bay, Point Lonsdale, Mud Islands, Point Nepean and Pope’s Eye (The Annulus).

By way of a folk memorial, he is recalled in the Australian vernacular expression "do a Harold Holt" (or "do the Harry"), rhyming slang for "do a bolt" meaning "to disappear suddenly and without explanation", although this is usually employed in the context of disappearance from a social gathering rather than a case of presumed death.