Major General Sir Ernest Dunlop Swinton, (21 October 1868 – 15 January 1951) was a

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

officer who played a part in the development and adoption of the

tank A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle intended as a primary offensive weapon in front-line ground combat. Tank designs are a balance of heavy firepower, strong armour, and battlefield mobility provided by tracks and a powerful engine; ...

during the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. 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 British, tracked, armoured fighting vehicles.

Early life and career

Swinton was born in

Bangalore Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...

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, in 1868. His father was a judge with the

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Civil Service. The family returned to England in 1874, and Swinton was educated at

University College School University College School, also known as UCS, is a private day school in Frognal, Hampstead, London, England. The school was founded in 1830 by University College London and inherited many of that institution's progressive and secular views. ...

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Cheltenham College Cheltenham College is a public school ( fee-charging boarding and day school for pupils aged 13–18) in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. The school opened in 1841 as a Church of England foundation and is known for its outstanding linguis ...

Blackheath Proprietary School The Blackheath Proprietary School was an educational establishment founded in 1830. In the 19th century, it had a profound influence on the game of football, in both Association and Rugby codes. In 1863, the school became one of the founders of T ...

, 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 Officer (armed forces), commissioned officers of the Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers. It later also trained officers o ...

. He was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Corps of Royal Engineers on 17 February 1888. Serving in

, he was promoted to

lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a Junior officer, junior commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations, as well as fire services, emergency medical services, Security agency, security services ...

on 17 February 1891, and to

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

on 17 February 1899. He served as a captain during the

Second Boer War The Second Boer War (, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, Transvaal War, Anglo–Boer War, or South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer republics (the South African Republic and ...

(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 The Distinguished Service Order (DSO) is a Military awards and decorations, military award of the United Kingdom, as well as formerly throughout the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth, awarded for operational gallantry for highly successful ...

(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'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The ...

'', a military classic on minor tactics that has been used by the

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and

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Armies to train their NCOs and officers, and by US military to train its officers. In the years leading up to the

, he served as a

staff officer A military staff or general staff (also referred to as army staff, navy staff, or air staff within the individual services) is a group of officers, enlisted, and civilian staff who serve the commander of a division or other large milita ...

and as an official historian of the

Russo-Japanese War The Russo-Japanese War (8 February 1904 – 5 September 1905) was fought between the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan over rival imperial ambitions in Manchuria and the Korean Empire. The major land battles of the war were fought on the ...

. He was promoted to major in December 1906.

First World War

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

war correspondent A war correspondent is a journalist who covers stories first-hand from a war, war zone. War correspondence stands as one of journalism's most important and impactful forms. War correspondents operate in the most conflict-ridden parts of the wor ...

on the Western Front. Journalists were not allowed at the front, and Swinton's reports were censored leading to an effectively uncontroversial although even-handed reporting. He was promoted to the temporary rank of lieutenant colonel in August 1914.

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 France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. 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

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, David Roberts of Richard Hornsby & Sons had attempted starting in 1911 to interest British military officials in a tracked vehicle, but failed. Benjamin Holt of the

Holt Manufacturing Company The Holt Manufacturing Company began with the 1883 founding of Stockton Wheel Service in Stockton, California, United States. Benjamin Holt, later credited with patenting the first workable crawler ("caterpillar") tractor design, incorporated ...

bought the patents related to the "chain track" track-type tractor from Richard Hornsby & Sons in 1914 for £4,000. When World War I broke out, with the problem of

trench warfare Trench warfare is a type of land warfare using occupied lines largely comprising Trench#Military engineering, military trenches, in which combatants are well-protected from the enemy's small arms fire and are substantially sheltered from a ...

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

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but saw them only as suitable for towing heavy artillery. Major Swinton was sent to France as an army

. 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 The War Office has referred to several British government organisations throughout history, all relating to the army. It was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, at ...

and became aware of the Landship Committee, which was entirely under the control of the Admiralty; he formed a working friendship with its secretary, Albert Gerald Stern. 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 and given responsibility for training the first tank units. He created the first tactical instructions for

armoured warfare Armoured warfare or armored warfare (American English; American and British English spelling differences#-our, -or, see spelling differences), is the use of armoured fighting vehicles in modern warfare. It is a major component of modern Milita ...

. 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

Stockton, California Stockton is a city in and the county seat of San Joaquin County, California, San Joaquin County in the Central Valley (California), Central Valley of the U.S. state of California. It is the most populous city in the county, the List of municipal ...

, 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 The Air Ministry was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom with the responsibility of managing the affairs of the Royal Air Force and civil aviation that existed from 1918 to 1964. It was under the political authority of the ...

. He thereafter joined

Citroën Citroën ()The double-dot diacritic over the 'e' is a diaeresis () indicating the two vowels are sounded separately, and not as a diphthong. is a French automobile brand. The "Automobiles Citroën" manufacturing company was founded on 4 June 19 ...

in 1922 as a director. He was Chichele Professor of Military History at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

and a

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, 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. Their daughter, Margaret Elizabeth, died in a road accident in 1944, aged 40, after being struck by an American Army vehicle while out cycling. A verdict of accidental death was returned at the inquest. "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, aged 82.

Honours and awards

*DSO : Companion of the Distinguished Service Order (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 caregi ...

(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 valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

– ''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 Reminiscences 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

Ernest Ernest is a given name derived from the Germanic languages, Germanic word ''ernst'', meaning "serious", often shortened to Ernie. Notable people and fictional characters with the name include: People *Archduke Ernest of Austria (1553–1595), ...

Military personnel of British India British Army major generals Military personnel from Bengaluru 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 Knights of the Legion of Honour British people in colonial India People educated at Rugby School