Ernest Dunlop Swinton | |
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| Born | (1868-10-21)21 October 1868 Bangalore, India |
| Died | 15 January 1951(1951-01-15) (aged 82) Oxford,Oxfordshire, England |
| Allegiance | United Kingdom |
| Branch | Royal Engineers |
| Years of service | 1888–1919 |
| Rank | Major General |
| Battles / wars | |
| Awards | |
| Other work |
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Major GeneralSir Ernest Dunlop Swinton,KBE, CB, DSO (21 October 1868 – 15 January 1951) was aBritish Army officer who played a part in the development and adoption of thetank during theFirst World War. He was also a war correspondent and author of several short stories on military themes. He is credited, along with fellow officerLieutenant-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.
Swinton was born inBangalore,India, in 1868. His father was a judge with theMadras Civil Service. The family returned to England in 1874, and Swinton was educated atUniversity College School,Rugby School,Cheltenham College,Blackheath Proprietary School, and theRoyal Military Academy, Woolwich. He was commissioned asecond lieutenant in theCorps of Royal Engineers on 17 February 1888.[1] Serving inIndia, he was promoted tolieutenant on 17 February 1891, and tocaptain on 17 February 1899.[2][3]
He served as a captain during theSecond Boer War (1899–1902), and returned home in September 1902, two months after the end of the war.[4] For his service, he received theDistinguished Service Order (DSO) in the September 1901 South African Honours list (the order was dated 29 November 1900).[5] 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, a military classic on minor tactics that has been used by theCanadian andBritish Armies to train theirNCOs and officers, and by US military to train its officers.[6][7] In the years leading up to theFirst World War, he served as astaff officer and as an official historian of theRusso-Japanese War. He was promoted to major in December 1906.[8]
TheWar Minister,Lord Kitchener, appointed Swinton as the official Britishwar correspondent on theWestern Front in 1914.[9] Journalists were not allowed at the front, and Swinton's reports were censored and vetted before being passed to the press leading to an effectively uncontroversial although even-handed reporting.[10] He was promoted to the temporary rank of lieutenant colonel in August 1914.[11]
Swinton recounts in his bookEyewitness how he first got the sudden idea to build a tank on 19 October 1914, while driving a car inFrance. 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-madeHolt Caterpillar Tractor.[12] 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 fromSt. Omer to Calais on the morning of October 1, 1914.[12]
InBritain,David Roberts ofRichard Hornsby & Sons had attempted starting in 1911 to interest British military officials in a tracked vehicle, but failed.Benjamin Holt of theHolt Manufacturing Company bought the patents related to the "chain track"track-type tractor from Richard Hornsby & Sons in 1914[13] for £4,000. When World War I broke out, with the problem oftrench warfare and the difficulty of transporting supplies to the front, the pulling power ofcrawling-type tractors drew the attention of the military. The British War Office conducted trials with Holt tractors atAldershot but saw them only as suitable for towing heavy artillery.Major Swinton was sent to France as an armywar correspondent. In November 1914 he suggested to SirMaurice Hankey, Secretary of the Committee of Imperial Defence, the construction of a bullet-proof, tracked vehicle that could destroy enemy machine guns.[14]
In July 1915, Swinton was given a prominent post in theWar Office[15] and became aware of theLandship Committee, which was entirely under the control of theAdmiralty; he formed a working friendship with its secretary,Albert Gerald Stern.[16] 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[17] and it was Swinton who drew up the specifications of the performance which the army would require.[18]
In 1916 Swinton was promoted tolieutenant colonel and given responsibility for training the first tank units. He created the first tactical instructions forarmoured warfare. TheRoyal Commission on Awards to Inventors decided after the war that the inventors of the tank were SirWilliam Tritton, managing director ofFosters and MajorWalter Gordon Wilson; however, Swinton was awarded £1,000 for his contribution.[19] By 1918, the War Office had received 2,100 Holt tractors.[20]
In April 1918, while on a tour of the US, Swinton visitedStockton, California, to publicly honourBenjamin 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.[21]
In 1919 Swinton retired as amajor general. He subsequently served in the Civil Aviation department at theAir Ministry. He thereafter joinedCitroën in 1922 as a director. He wasChichele Professor of Military History at theUniversity of Oxford and afellow ofAll Souls College, Oxford, from 1925 to 1939; he was also a Colonel Commandant of theRoyal Tank Corps from 1934 to 1938. In 1938, he editedTwenty 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.[22]
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.[23] A verdict of accidental death was returned at the inquest.[24]
Swinton died in Oxford on 15 January 1951, aged 82.[24]
Croix de Chevalier of the Legion of Honour –1916 – in recognition of distinguished service during the campaign[27]also:
Media related toErnest Dunlop Swinton at Wikimedia Commons
