You might remember a discussion a while ago about this:
In July 1918, Popular Science Monthly reported, "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."
I tried and failed to identify the Fellow who did the misleading. I spoke to a very nice lady at the Society who was extremely interested and helpful, but we couldn't come up with anything from the information available.
But now I've found him. A bit of luck and a bit of educated reasoning led me to the identity of the gent, via an article on the Renault History website about the FT, a letter to the editor of a local newspaper in Devon, and The Strand magazine. I've read the misleading article (and it is hugely and inexplicably so). I know his name, and first thing Monday morning I'll see what the RHS has to say about him.
That's all for now.
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"Sometimes things that are not true are included in Wikipedia. While at first glance that may appear like a very great problem for Wikipedia, in reality is it not. In fact, it's a good thing." - Wikipedia.
