The Genesis

Years prior to Wells publishing his story (as insightful as it is) based on ideas proposed for armoured "battle cars," by such as Vigevano in 1335 and da Vinci in 1484, a certain James Cowan took out a patent, in England, for an armed, wheeled, armoured vehicle in 1855.

As the 20th century dawned interest arose, in several countries, as to the feasibility of using an armoured vehicle in any future conflict. The same year that Wells' work was published, the French authorities examined but turned down plans for a tracked armoured vehicle. However, a fully armoured car, with a turret was built by Société Charron Giradot et Voight the following year. At the same time the Austro-Daimler Company was busily building another in Austria. Four years later and again in 1912, the British War Office examined but did not accept proffered designs for an armoured tracked vehicle. However, of significant import was the rejection, the previous year, of yet another design by both the Austro-Hungarian and German general staffs.

Before the outbreak of World War One, Colonel (later Major-General, Sir) Ernest Dunlop Swinton, learning from his experiences in South Africa during the Boer War, had espoused his belief that armour should be placed on vehicles to protect the occupants from enemy fire. His words did not fall on deaf ears, as experts in the use of armour-plate a team from the Royal Navy, lead by Lieutenant Walter Gordon Wilson RN, were given the task to oversee the construction of the first Armoured Cars by the Lanchester and Rolls-Royce companies. Somewhat surprisingly, the Royal Naval Division was called upon to provide crews for the former when they were delivered.

Almost immediately after war broke out in August 1914, two units of the Royal Naval Division (the Naval Brigade and the Royal Naval Air Service Squadron) equipped with the newly developed Lanchester armoured cars, were sent to Belgium to assist in the defence of its ports. Incidentally, the Royal Tank Regiment considers itself to be the direct heir of these original armoured car pioneers.

In the summer of 1915, Swinton was ordered by retired Field Marshal Kitchener (1st Earl Kitchener of Khartoum, who had been appointed Secretary for War on 7th August 1914) to proceed to France to write a series of reports on the military situation. Colonel Swinton, having become alarmed by the manifest superiority of the German artillery, reported the need for "some form of armoured vehicle immune against bullets, which should be capable of destroying machine-guns and of ploughing a way through wire." Although Kitchener showed little interest in the suggestion, he did agree that Swinton should present the idea to General Sir John French and his scientific advisors who, promptly, rejected the proposal. Fortunately, Swinton had a good friend in a fellow Colonel (later Sir) Maurice Hankey, Secretary to the Committee of Imperial Defence, who lost no time presenting Swinton's idea to Winston Churchill the First Lord of the Admiralty. Not only was Churchill a willing listener, he authorised the setting up of the Admiralty Landships Committee. Chaired by Tennyson d'Eynecourt, a submarine expert, the Committee was particularly fortunate to have included as members two men from the Royal Navy, Commander Briggs and the brilliant engineer Lt.W.G.Wilson RN whose work had contributed so much to the design of the Lanchester armoured car.

One of the first decisions was to send the Committee Secretay, Lieutenant (later Lt. Colonel, Sir) Albert Gerald Stern, along with two of his colleagues, to France on a fact-finding mission. The visit was not well received by the Army who were upset that the Royal Navy was intruding their bailiwick. Such was the level of resentment that the three were deemed to be interlopers and were expelled from the theatre. Coincidentally, the trio just missed meeting up with Colonel Swinton who, as previously stated, was also in the theatre.