Landships II

From time to time we stop to examine one of the unquestioned "facts" about our favourite invention. One which is automatically included in accounts of the Tank's development is that the predecessor of Little Willie was called "No. 1 Lincoln Machine."

But was it? By whom was it called this? Has anyone seen any primary evidence? I don't recall Stern, Swinton, d'Eyncourt, or anyone referring to it as such in their autobiogs. It occurs to me that it might be one of those "facts" that gets cloned and ends up being accepted as truth. We've had a few of those in the past.

And this is from the July 1918 edition of Popular Science Monthly: "Because a fellow of the Royal Historical Society has unintentionally misled the British public as to the origin of the famous "tanks," Sir William Tritton, who designed and built them, has published the real story of their name ... Since it was obviously inadvisable to herald "Little Willie's" reason for existence to the world he was known as the "Instructional Demonstration Unit." "Little Willie's" hull was called in the shop orders a "water carrier for Mesopotamia;" no one knew that the hull was intended to be mounted on a truck. Naturally, the water carrier began to be called a "tank."

Tritton mentions "Instructional Demonstration Unit," but nothing that resembles "No. 1 Lincoln Machine." Anyone got any thoughts?

BTW, I haven't been able to establish who did the unintentional misleading or what incident Tritton is alluding to. Probably not d'Eyncourt, who was a member of the Royal Society, not the Royal Historical Society.