Constructed in late 1915 by William Foster & Co. of Lincoln, Little Willie holds a monumental place in military history as the world’s first completed working tank prototype. Developed under the auspices of the Admiralty’s Landships Committee and engineered jointly by Sir William Tritton and Major Walter Wilson, the 16.5-ton vehicle, originally dubbed the Lincoln Machine No. 1, was built using unarmored boiler plate to test the feasibility of a tracked, armoured war machine.
Driven by a 105-horsepower Daimler engine and fitted with trailing rear steering wheels, it demonstrated that an internal combustion engine paired with tracks could carry heavy armor across difficult ground. However, its low-slung, boxy hull and high center of gravity gave it poor trench-crossing capabilities, while its planned overhead gun turret was abandoned to lower its profile. Although Little Willie never saw combat, its fundamental lessons directly inspired the iconic rhomboidal design of the successor prototype “Mother” and the subsequent Mark I tank. Today, as the oldest surviving tank in existence, Little Willie is preserved as a flagship exhibit at The Tank Museum in Bovington.