As anyone who has either grown up or spent an extended amount of time in Lincoln is certainly well aware, our fair city was the birthplace of the modern tank. The recent Lincoln Inspired festival featured several interesting talks; but perhaps none was more interesting from my point of view than that of Richard Pullen, a local historian discussing his book The Landships of Lincoln. Based on his fascinating and entertaining discussion, I thought I would spend a few column inches looking at the history of the tank and the role our city played in its development.
Despite earlier attempts at armoured vehicles, in reality the history of the tank began as the fighting in Europe bogged down. Due to the ongoing stalemate on the front and the excessive casualties of the trench warfare which resulted, by early 1915 the War Office began experiencing with various ‘tench-crossing’ vehicles, most notably the Tritton Trench Crosser, created by William Tritton, managing director of Fosters & Co., an agricultural machinery manufacturer in Lincoln. The design, however, proved too much of a burden and was quickly abandoned. The tank seemed doomed before it even began its life.
The Tritton Trench Crosser in Lincoln
While the War Office took a dim view of the prospects of the concept of an armoured, trench crossing vehicle, The First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill saw great potential in the new machines. Establishing the Landships committee in early 1915, he passionately oversaw the development of the tank and argued its cause at the highest levels. These machines were to be ‘landships’ in every sense of the word: they had commanders, not captains, they had hulls and they used navy guns as their primary fire-power.
Little Willie, an early design of the tank by William Tritton in Lincoln.
While several manufacturers were mooted to design a prototype, in the end, Fosters was chosen over its rivals, in large part due to the previous designs of William Tritton. While attempts at a grandiose trench crosser quickly failed, soon the ingenious decision to utilize American farming tracks on an armoured car was taken, and within months No.1 Lincoln Machine was tested in early September, 1915. After tweaking the tracks, a new model, nicknamed Little Willie was developed by the end of they year. This design was furthered refined by the first of the Big Willie tanks, nicknamed Mother, which featured a more improved rhomboid design for clearing trenches without getting stuck.
Soon, these tanks were brought into mass production, with the workers (often, as Pullen pointed out, women) famously being told that they were building ‘water tanks for Mesopotamia,’ hence the name ‘tank’. It should be noted that the vast majority of tanks were not built in Lincoln by Fosters. Rather, they were often built in Birmingham, Newcastle or other large industrial centres. When a new model was required, however, the innovation always took place at Fosters and the testing was carried out on what is now Tritton Road. Over the course of the war, Tritton would design and oversee the creation of several different models of tanks, including the Mark IV, the Whippet, and the Hornet.
The Mark IV tank at the Museum of Lincolnshire Life in Lincoln
Despite this great effort in the war, Lincoln often found itself on the outs with regards to receiving the same recognition that other cities often got for their war efforts. By 1916, tanks were popularly used by the War Office as travelling billboards for the selling of war bonds. Often, tanks which had been scarred by action would arrive in town centres and the public would be encouraged to give money for the war effort. Lincoln, however, was continually passed over, until a public campaign finally secured such a visit to Cornhill in early 1918. In that instance, the good people of Lincoln proved their commitment to the war effort by raising over £150,000 for the building of a new destroyer. This was three times the amount originally requested.
The visit of the fund-raising tank was short, and so was the heyday of Fosters’ tank production. On Armistice Day, the contract for the production of tanks was terminated, leaving the company with an excess of materials which they could not use or get rid of, resulting in large losses as the company entered the 1920s. Only a handful more tanks would ever be produced by the company: a tank for the Italian army in 1937 and two tanks for the British army at the start of the Second World War, Tog 1 and Tog 2, both of which were essentially useless.
The sign, placed above the William Foster and Co. factory for a visit by King George. Photo: Lincoln Tank Memorial Group
While the role of Lincoln in the design and production of the tank ended with a whimper, it is still a matter of great pride that our small city played such an important role in the genesis of these all-powerful military machines. It is not just local pride, but as Pullen notes in his book, a great source of family pride, as many people (including Pullen himself) can point to their efforts of their grandparents and great grandparents in the building of these fearsome beasts — a proud legacy which still lives on.
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Cory Santos is a postgraduate researcher at the University of Lincoln who specialises in the social history of Britain during the Second World War. Besides his main research focuses, he also enjoys local history and the interesting tales it often turns up.
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A man in his 20s was seriously injured after a crash on the B1397 Old Spalding Road in Wigtoft near Boston over the weekend.
Emergency services were called to the scene of the crash involving one vehicle – a blue Hyundai iX35 – shortly after 11pm on Saturday, March 6. The crash is believed to have occurred between 9pm-11pm.
The driver was seriously injured and taken to hospital.
Lincolnshire Police are appealing for witnesses and would like to speak to anyone who captured dashcam footage of the incident.
Anyone with information should contact police on 101 or via email at [email protected] quoting incident 489 of March 6.
Alternatively, it can be reported through the independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or online here.
There have been 643 new coronavirus cases and 31 COVID-related deaths in Greater Lincolnshire so far this week – compared to 1,005 cases and 26 deaths by this time last week.
The government’s COVID-dashboard on Friday recorded 79 new cases in Lincolnshire, 28 in North East Lincolnshire and 23 in North Lincolnshire.
The latest data takes the total number of cases in Greater Lincolnshire to over 54,000.
On Friday, seven deaths were registered in Lincolnshire. These include deaths both in and out of hospitals, as well as residents in hospitals outside the county.
NHS England reported six new local hospital deaths – five at United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust and one at Northern Lincolnshire and Goole Hospitals Trust. This brings the total of hospital deaths so far this week to 24, a rise from 11 last week.
National cases increased by 5,947 to 4,207,304, while deaths rose by 236 to 124,261.
Nationally, Office for National Statistics data shows that the number of coronavirus infections in the UK continued to fall.
In the seven days up to February 27, around 280,000 people were confirmed positive, a drop of about a third on the most recent date.
The latest R number – the number of people that one infected person will pass the virus on to – is between 0.7 and 0.9.
From Monday, care home residents will be allowed to have a regular indoor visitor as long as they take a coronavirus lateral flow test before entry and wear personal protective equipment (PPE).
Hugging and kissing their relatives will be forbidden, although hand holding will be permitted.
Elsewhere, meeting up with one other person outdoors – for example sitting together in a park with coffee, drink, or picnic, will also be permitted.
Further relaxation is hoped to happen from March 29, when the rule of six will again be allowed, along with outdoor sports facilities reopening and the stay at home rule ending.
In a press conference on Friday evening health secretary Matt Hancock welcomed the news that a mystery person in the UK infected with the COVID variant of concern first found in Brazil had now been traced.
He said the ‘unbreakable link’ between cases, hospitalisation and deaths was ‘being broken’ due to the vaccine rollout – but added testing still remains ‘critical’.
Coronavirus data for Greater Lincolnshire on Friday, March 5
54,126 cases (up 130)
38,170 in Lincolnshire (up 79)
8,149 in North Lincolnshire (up 23)
7,807 in North East Lincolnshire (up 28)
2,105 deaths (up 7)
1,549 from Lincolnshire (up 7)
300 from North Lincolnshire (no change)
256 from North East Lincolnshire (no change)
of which 1,244 hospital deaths (up six)
772 at United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust (up five)
41 at Lincolnshire Community Health Service hospitals (no change)
1 at Lincolnshire Partnership Foundation Trust (no change)
A Boston man who amassed a collection of thousand of illegal images after becoming addicted to downloading child abuse images was jailed at Lincoln Crown Court on Friday.
Howard Angel was arrested after police raided his home and took away a laptop computer.
Tony Stanford, prosecuting, said that the following day Angel went to Grantham Police Station and confessed.
“He said he had been stupid. He was interviewed. He was relatively frank. He said he wanted help.
“He said ‘I shouldn’t have done it but I did’. He said he became addicted and hooked on it.”
Mr Stanford said that later Angel’s then wife handed police a second laptop which she found in the attic.
When police examined the two laptops they found that Angel had been accessing child abuse images for nine years.
A total of 16,944 illegal images of children were on the devices including 2,641 in the most serious category.
Angel, 59, of Wyberton West Road, Boston, admitted three charges of making indecent images of children between March 2010 and May 2019.
He was jailed for 10 months and given a 15 year sexual harm prevention order. He was also placed on the sex offenders’ register for 10 years.
Recorder Charles Falk, passing sentence, told him: “What tips the balance here is the length of time you have been offending which is nine years.
“That and the fact that this is a very large collection makes this a case that is so serious that only immediate custody can be justified.”
Michael Cranmer-Brown, in mitigation, said that Angel had lost everything as a result of what he did.
“When this came to light his world was turned upside down. He had been in a marriage for over 20 years. He has children. He has effectively been rejected by them all.
“He has been kicked out of his family home and he is now divorced from his wife. In addition he has suffered the loss of his job. Having disclosed to his employer about his conviction he has been sacked.”
Mr Cranmer-Brown said that since his arrest Angel has sought help and urged that he should not receive an immediate prison sentence.