Author:
[The Atlantic Union, club founded in 1900 by Sir Walter Besant; Thomas Driffield Hawkin; John Leigh Nissen, partner in London printers Nissen & Arnold and Past Master of the Leathersellers' Company]
Publication details:
Hawkin's letter: on Atlantic Union letterhead, 13a Cockspur Street, Trafalgar Square, London; 10 December 1907; offprint 'Amplified from The African World, April 4, 1908'; circular from The Atlantic Union, undated.
The Oxford DNB entry on Sir Walter Besant states that, 'Concerned to cultivate better understanding with North America, Besant worked in the last two years of his life for the Atlantic Union.' In fact it was Besant who founded the club in 1900, with Conan Doyle and others, with the object, according to The Times, 22 February 1900, 'of drawing together the various English-speaking peoples and strengthening the bonds of union by the formation of ties of personal friendship among individual members'.
