The Link - Definition

For the REIT in Hong Kong, see The Link REIT.

The Link was a British pro-German organisation founded in 1937 by Admiral Sir Barry Domvile (also a member of the Anglo-German Fellowship).

The Link was established as an 'independent non-party organisation to promote Anglo-German friendship'. It generally operated as a cultural organisation, although its journal, the Anglo-German Review reflected the pro-Nazi views of Domvile, and particularly in London it attracted a number of anti-semites and pro-Nazis. At its height the membership numbered around 4,300.

The organisation was investigated by Maxwell Knight, head of counter-subversion in MI5 and future role model for James Bond's boss M. The organisation closed shortly after the start of World War II in 1939.

Domvile was interned in 1940 as someone who might "endanger the safety of the realm".

According to The Man Who Was M: The Life of Charles Henry Maxwell Knight by Anthony Masters, ISBN 0-631-13392-5, The Link was allegedly resurrected in 1940 by Ian Fleming, then working in the Department of Naval Intelligence, in order to successfully lure Rudolf Hess (deputy party leader and third in leadership of Germany, after Adolf Hitler and Hermann Göring) to Britain in May 1941. However there is apparently no other source for these claims, and its factual accuracy is disputed.

The Link is also the name of a chain of shops in the UK selling Mobile telephones, part of DSG Retail Limited.