Major-General Sir Ernest Dunlop Swinton, (21 October 1868 – 15 January 1951) was a British Army officer who played a part in the development and adoption of the tank during the First World War. He was also a war correspondent and author of several short stories on military themes. He is credited, along with fellow officer Lieutenant-Colonel Walter Dally Jones, with having initiated the use of the word "tank" as a code-name for the first tracked, armoured fighting vehicles.

Early life and career

Swinton was born in Bangalore, India, in 1868. His father was a judge with the

Madras Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

Civil Service. The family returned to England in 1874, and Swinton was educated at University College School, Rugby School, Cheltenham College, Blackheath Proprietary School, and the

Royal Military Academy, Woolwich The Royal Military Academy (RMA) at Woolwich, in south-east London, was a British Army military academy for the training of commissioned officers of the Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers. It later also trained officers of the Royal Corps of Sig ...

. He was commissioned a

second lieutenant Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces, comparable to NATO OF-1 rank. Australia The rank of second lieutenant existed in the military forces of the Australian colonies and Australian Army until ...

in the Corps of Royal Engineers on 17 February 1888. Serving in India, he was promoted to lieutenant on 17 February 1891, and to

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

on 17 February 1899. He served as a captain during the Second Boer War (1899–1902), and returned home in September 1902, two months after the end of the war. For his service, he received the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) in the September 1901 South African Honours list (the order was dated 29 November 1900). Although principally concerned with railway construction, he took a keen interest in tactics, fortifications, and the effectiveness of modern weaponry, especially the recently introduced machine-gun. After the war, he wrote his book on small unit tactics, ''

The Defence of Duffer's Drift ''The Defence of Duffer's Drift'' is a short 1904 book by Ernest Dunlop Swinton. Lieutenant Backsight Forethought (BF) and his command of fifty men are given the task to defend Duffer's Drift, a natural ford to a river. A large force of Boer ...

'', a military classic on minor tactics that has been used by the Canadian and British Armies to train their NCOs and officers, and by US military to train its officers. In the years leading up to the First World War, he served as a staff officer and as an official historian of the Russo-Japanese War.

First World War

The War Minister, Lord Kitchener, appointed Swinton as the official British war correspondent on the

Western Front Western Front or West Front may refer to: Military frontiers *Western Front (World War I), a military frontier to the west of Germany *Western Front (World War II), a military frontier to the west of Germany *Western Front (Russian Empire), a majo ...

. Journalists were not allowed at the front, and Swinton's reports were censored leading to an effectively uncontroversial although even-handed reporting.

Development of tanks

Swinton recounts in his book ''Eyewitness'' how he first got the sudden idea to build a tank on 19 October 1914, while driving a car in France. It is known that in July 1914 he received a letter from a friend, a mining engineer named Hugh F. Marriott whom he had met while in South Africa. Marriott occasionally sent Swinton news of technical developments that might have a military application, and his letter described a machine he had seen in Antwerp, an American-made Holt Caterpillar Tractor. He suggested that the machine might be useful for transport, and Swinton passed the information on to several military and political figures who he thought might be interested. At the time, with no apparent prospect of war, the idea seemed to be a matter only of transport efficiency, and Swinton forgot about the matter. The idea of a caterpillar track as the basis for a fighting vehicle occurred to him only as he drove from St. Omer to Calais on the morning of 19 October. In Britain,

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Richard Hornsby & Sons Richard Hornsby & Sons was an engine and machinery manufacturer in Grantham, Lincolnshire, England from 1828 until 1918. The company was a pioneer in the manufacture of the oil engine developed by Herbert Akroyd Stuart, which was marketed un ...

had attempted starting in 1911 to interest British military officials in a tracked vehicle, but failed.

Benjamin Holt Benjamin Leroy Holt (January 1, 1849 – December 5, 1920) was an American businessman and inventor who patented and manufactured the first practical crawler-type tread tractor. The continuous-type track is used for heavy agricultural and engin ...

of the Holt Manufacturing Company bought the patents related to the "chain track" track-type tractor from

in 1914 for £4,000. When World War I broke out, with the problem of trench warfare and the difficulty of transporting supplies to the front, the pulling power of crawling-type tractors drew the attention of the military. The British War Office conducted trials with Holt tractors at Aldershot but saw them only as suitable for towing heavy artillery. Major Swinton was sent to France as an army war correspondent. In November 1914 he suggested to Sir Maurice Hankey, Secretary of the Committee of Imperial Defence, the construction of a bullet-proof, tracked vehicle that could destroy enemy machine guns. In July 1915, Swinton was given a prominent post in the War Office and became aware of the

Landship Committee The Landship Committee was a small British committee formed during the First World War to develop armoured fighting vehicles for use on the Western Front. The eventual outcome was the creation of what is now called the tank. Established in Februa ...

, which was entirely under the control of

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; he formed a working friendship with its secretary,

Albert Gerald Stern Sir Albert Gerald Stern (24 September 1878 – 2 January 1966) was a banker who became the Secretary of the Landship Committee during World War I, where his organisational ability assisted the Committee in creating the first British tank. Durin ...

. Swinton was able to persuade the prime minister to call an inter-departmental conference on 28 August 1915, which ensured the army's cooperation with the Landship Committee's work and it was Swinton who drew up the specifications of the performance which the army would require. In 1916 Swinton was promoted to

Lieutenant Colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colone ...

and given responsibility for training the first tank units. He created the first tactical instructions for armoured warfare. The Royal Commission on Awards to Inventors decided after the war that the inventors of the tank were Sir William Tritton, managing director of Fosters and Major Walter Gordon Wilson; however, Swinton was awarded £1,000 for his contribution. By 1918, the War Office had received 2,100 Holt tractors. Swinton-holt-stockton-1918

In April 1918, while on a tour of the US, Swinton visited

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, California to publicly honour Benjamin Holt and the company for their contribution to the war effort and to relay Britain's gratitude to the inventor. Benjamin Holt was recognised by the General at a public meeting held in Stockton.

Post-war

In 1919 Swinton retired as a Major General. He subsequently served in the Civil Aviation department at the Air Ministry. He thereafter joined

Citroën Citroën () is a French automobile brand. The "Automobiles Citroën" manufacturing company was founded in March 1919 by André Citroën. Citroën is owned by Stellantis since 2021 and previously was part of the PSA Group after Peugeot acquired ...

in 1922 as a director. He was

Chichele Professor of Military History The Chichele Professorships are statutory professorships at the University of Oxford named in honour of Henry Chichele (also spelt Chicheley or Checheley, although the spelling of the academic position is consistently "Chichele"), an Archbishop of ...

at the University of Oxford and a fellow of

All Souls College, Oxford All Souls College (official name: College of the Souls of All the Faithful Departed) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Unique to All Souls, all of its members automatically become fellows (i.e., full members of t ...

, from 1925 to 1939; he was also a Colonel Commandant of the Royal Tank Corps from 1934 to 1938. In 1938, he edited ''Twenty Years After: the Battlefields of 1914–18: then and Now'', a publication of George Newnes Limited. This was planned for issue in 20 parts but ultimately amounted to 42. The magazine-style publication contained wartime and present-day (ca. 1938) images of France.

Family life

Swinton married Grace Louise Clayton in 1897 and they had two sons and a daughter. His daughter died in a road accident during the Second World War."Maj.-Gen. Sir Ernest Swinton." Times ondon, England17 January 1951: 6. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 5 August 2012. Swinton died in Oxford on 15 January 1951.

Honours and awards

*DSO :

Companion of the Distinguished Service Order The Distinguished Service Order (DSO) is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, as well as formerly of other parts of the Commonwealth, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typic ...

(DSO) – ''29 November 1900'' – in recognition of services during operations in South Africa. *CB :

Companion of the Order of the Bath Companion may refer to: Relationships Currently * Any of several interpersonal relationships such as friend or acquaintance * A domestic partner, akin to a spouse * Sober companion, an addiction treatment coach * Companion (caregiving), a caregive ...

(CB) – ''12 February 1917'' – in recognition of services during the war. * KBE :

Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...

– ''2 June 1923'' – in the King's Birthday Honours. * Croix de Chevalier of the Legion of Honour – ''1916'' – in recognition of distinguished service during the campaign

Works

''Eyewitness : Being Personal Reminicsences of Certain Phases of the Great War, Including the Genesis of the Tank
' (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1932)

References

Bibliography

* Swinton, Ernest (under the pseudonym "Lieutenant Backsight Forethought")
''The Defence of Duffer's Drift''
Oxford: United Service Magazine, 1905; Originally published in April 1905 in "The British Infantry Journal", . * Swinton, Ernest (as editor)
''The Truth About Port Arthur''
London: Murray, 1908 * Swinton, Ernest (as editor)
''The Russian Army and the Japanese War, Vol. I''
New York: Dutton, 1909 * Swinton, Ernest (as editor)
''The Russian Army and the Japanese War, Vol. II''
New York: Dutton, 1909 * McClure's Magazine (two articles under the pseudonym "Ole Luk-Oie")
''Link''
1910 * Swinton, Ernest (under the pseudonym "Ole Luk-Oie")
''The Green Curve''
New York: Doubleday, 1914, and as an added bonus, hi
''obituary''
* Swinton, Ernest (under the pseudonym "Ole Luk-Oie")
''The Great Tab Dope''
Edinburgh: Blackwood, 1916 * Swinton, Ernest
''Tanks''
1918, reprinted from "The Strand Magazine". * ''The Study of War'' (1926) * Swinton, Major-General Sir Ernest D.

London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1932 (includes the genesis of the tank) * ''Over My Shoulder'' (1951, posthumously) also: * (translation) ''An Eastern Odyssey: The Third Expedition of Haardt and Audion-Dubreuil'' (1935)

External links

* Internet Archive (Please create a free account to view the footnotes and references above)
''Link''

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Swinton, Ernest Dunlop 1868 births 1951 deaths Military personnel of British India British Army major generals Military personnel from Bangalore Companions of the Distinguished Service Order Companions of the Order of the Bath History of the tank Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire British Army generals of World War I Royal Engineers officers British Army personnel of the Second Boer War British war correspondents People educated at University College School British military historians Fellows of All Souls College, Oxford Chichele Professors of the History of War People educated at Blackheath Proprietary School Chevaliers of the Légion d'honneur