Landships Committee
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The Landships Committee was a small cabinet established in 1915 to deal with the design and construction of what would turn out to be tanks during the First World War. Headed by First Lord Of The Admiralty Winston Churchill, the Landships Committee was composed mainly of naval officers, politicians and engineers.
The committee came about when Colonel Maurice Hankey took Colonel Ernest Swinton's proposals for an amoured trench crossing vehicle to Churchill after they had been discounted by General French and other senior staff in the British Army
The committee was chaired by Eustace Tennyson d’Eyncourt, the Director of Naval Construction at the Admiralty. Among those who attended were Thomas Hetherington, Robert Francis Macfie and Colonel Rookes Evelyn Bell Crompton,
Many had been inspired by early ideas for from pre-war years. Among these would be the armoured "war car" built in the early 1890's in Eastern Europe. The Armoured car was already in use with the Royal Naval Air Service on the Continent. Another inspiration was an HG Wells 1904 novel The Land Ironclads, and all but Winston Churchill were willing to "borrow" Wells' creation under copyright law.
The Landships Committee was effectively responsible for creating the first Tank Corps. A small battery of the Motor Machine Gun Corps in Surrey was used as a cover before the Tank Corps was established in 1916. Both battalions were replaced by the Royal Armoured Corps and the Royal Artillery after the war.
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