The Tank Museum recently acquired a major collection of papers associated with William Tritton, co-inventor of the tank.
Relating to the development of the first tank, this important piece of tank history includes documents, reports, letters, memorandums, illustrations and notes.
Inventors of the Tank
The names of Walter Wilson and William Tritton are familiar to those who know the story of the invention of the tank but are perhaps not so well known to the wider public.
William Tritton was Managing Director of Fosters of Lincoln, a company that specialised in agricultural machinery.
Walter Wilson served with the Royal Naval Air Service as an engineer. He transferred to the Army in 1916 attaining the rank of Major.
Both worked on the test vehicle ‘Little Willie’ then ‘Mother’ – the prototype for the Mark I tank that first trundled into action on 16 September 1916.
William Tritton and Fosters of Lincoln
The son of a London stockbroker, William Tritton attended Kings College in London. His engineering career began at Gwynnes Pumps, a manufacturer of centrifugal pumps and pumping engines but, like many Victorian engineering companies, would move into other areas of production if a market was found.
Tritton moved to Fosters, an agricultural machinery manufacturer in 1906 and was made Managing Director in 1911.
Fosters were approached by the Navy to make a tractor for pulling large calibre artillery pieces, and later asked to help with the development of a landship, a new machine to help soldiers get across no-man’s land and break into German trench positions.
The Royal Commission of Awards to Inventors
The Royal Commission of Awards to Inventors was set up under Mr Justice Sargeant with five assessors. The aim was to judge who had invented the tank and then distribute money in proportion to their effort.
By the time the Commission sat on 7 October 1919, interest in the tank and the war was already fading as people tried to return to normal life. The distribution of money was meant to be seen as a ‘thank you’ for efforts during the war, but the nature of the Commission saw claimants having to argue their case in a legalistic manor against representatives of the Crown. This led to a sense of ordeal by many of the claimants, some of whom became ill through the stress.
Wilson and Tritton grew cynical about the process as they were made to claim ‘firsts’ in what was a joint and at times confused effort to build the first successful tank. After six days of submissions there was a thirteen-month break, then another five days of further wrangling. The Commission finally awarded both Wilson and Tritton £15,000 to share between them, but by this stage both were heartily sick of the process.
The Tritton Collection
In 2022, The Tank Museum was able to buy a major collection of papers associated with William Tritton with the backing of an ex Royal Tank Regiment officer, Tim Allen. The papers were put together and held, we think, by William Tritton’s Lawyer, Mr Alfred Dods, as they were needed as part of the submission to the Royal Commission of Awards to Inventors.
The collection of papers contains documents, many reports, letters, memorandums, illustrations and notes, and one drawing. The drawing shows what might only be described as doodles, indicating the outline shape of the first Rhomboid tank ‘Mother’ and how tailwheels might be used as a counterbalance.
The shape of the tank and the use of wheels to help support the vehicle crossing a battlefield and to steer has been much debated over time. When wheels were used on the first Mark 1 tanks as they went into action, some were lost to shellfire and crews quickly realised they made little real difference as to the fighting ability of the tank. In subsequent Marks of tanks, the wheels were dispensed with and there seems little in the way of comment on their loss.
There is also evidence of mounting anger in some of the correspondence about how badly Tritton felt he (and others) had been treated during the war and in the years afterwards. A lot of tension is evident in his dealings with the War Office and the Admiralty, and he feels aggrieved at not being recognised as an inventor.
The Tank Museum is hoping to publish a book in the future, using this amazing material detailing some of the struggles surrounding the birth of the tank.
