Ernest Swinton facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Ernest Dunlop Swinton
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Ernest Dunlop Swinton
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| Born | 21 October 1868 Bangalore, India |
| Died | 15 January 1951 (aged 82) Oxford, Oxfordshire |
| Allegiance | United Kingdom |
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Royal Engineers |
| Years of service | 1888–1919 |
| Rank | Major General |
| Battles/wars | |
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Sir Ernest Dunlop Swinton (born October 21, 1868 – died January 15, 1951) was a British Army officer. He played a very important part in creating and using the first tanks during the First World War. He was also a war reporter and wrote many military stories. Swinton is known for helping to come up with the code-name "tank" for these new armored vehicles.
Contents
Early Life and Military Career
Ernest Swinton was born in Bangalore, India, in 1868. His father was a judge. His family moved back to England in 1874. Swinton went to several schools, including Rugby School. He joined the Corps of Royal Engineers as a second lieutenant in 1888.
He served in India and was promoted to lieutenant in 1891, then to captain in 1899.
Serving in the Boer War
Swinton was a captain during the Second Boer War (1899–1902). He returned home after the war in 1902. For his service, he received the Distinguished Service Order (DSO). During the war, he was mainly involved in building railways. However, he was also very interested in how armies fought and how well new weapons, like the machine gun, worked.
After the war, he wrote a book called The Defence of Duffer's Drift. This book teaches soldiers about small unit tactics. It has been used to train officers and NCOs in the British, Canadian, and US armies. Before the First World War, he worked as a staff officer and wrote about the Russo-Japanese War.
World War I and Tank Development
When the First World War began, Lord Kitchener, who was the War Minister, chose Swinton to be the official British war correspondent on the Western Front. At that time, journalists were not allowed at the front lines. Swinton's reports were checked by the army, but he still gave fair reports.
The Idea for Tanks
Swinton wrote in his book Eyewitness that he first thought of building a tank on October 19, 1914, while driving in France. He had received a letter in July 1914 from a friend, Hugh F. Marriott. Marriott told him about a Holt Caterpillar Tractor he had seen. He thought it could be useful for transport. Swinton shared this information with military leaders. At first, it was just about moving things. But the idea of using a caterpillar track for a fighting vehicle came to him later.
Before the war, an engineer named David Roberts had tried to interest British military officials in tracked vehicles, but he was not successful. The Holt Manufacturing Company bought the patents for these "chain tracks" in 1914. When World War I started, armies faced trench warfare. It was hard to move supplies. The strong pulling power of tracked tractors caught the military's attention. The British War Office tested Holt tractors, but only saw them as useful for pulling heavy artillery.
In November 1914, Major Swinton suggested to Sir Maurice Hankey that they should build a bullet-proof, tracked vehicle. This vehicle could destroy enemy machine guns.
Building the First Tanks
In July 1915, Swinton got an important job at the War Office. He learned about the Landship Committee, which was controlled by the Admiralty. He became friends with its secretary, Albert Gerald Stern. Swinton convinced the prime minister to hold a meeting in August 1915. This meeting made sure the army would work with the Landship Committee. Swinton then wrote down what the army needed the new vehicles to do.
In 1916, Swinton was promoted to lieutenant colonel. He was put in charge of training the first tank units. He also wrote the first instructions for how to use tanks in battle. After the war, the Royal Commission on Awards to Inventors decided that Sir William Tritton and Major Walter Gordon Wilson were the main inventors of the tank. However, Swinton was given £1,000 for his important contribution. By 1918, the War Office had bought 2,100 Holt tractors.
In April 1918, Swinton visited the US. He went to Stockton, California, to thank Benjamin Holt and his company. He thanked them for their help in the war effort.
After the War
Swinton retired from the army in 1919 as a major general. He then worked for the Civil Aviation department. In 1922, he joined the car company Citroën as a director.
From 1925 to 1939, he was a professor of Military History at the University of Oxford. He was also a Colonel Commandant of the Royal Tank Corps from 1934 to 1938. In 1938, he edited a publication called Twenty Years After: the Battlefields of 1914–18: then and Now. This magazine-style publication showed pictures of France from the war and from 1938.
Ernest Swinton died in Oxford on January 15, 1951.
Honours and Awards
- DSO : Companion of the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) – 1900 – for his service in South Africa.
- CB : Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) – 1917 – for his service during the war.
- KBE : Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire – 1923 – a high honour from the King.
Croix de Chevalier of the Legion of Honour – 1916 – a French award for distinguished service.
Works
- Eyewitness : Being Personal Reminicsences of Certain Phases of the Great War, Including the Genesis of the Tank (1932)
See also
