Lancelot De Mole

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Lancelot Eldin De Mole CBE, (March 13, 1880 - May 6, 1950) was an Australian engineer and inventor. He suggested the idea of what would become the tank to the British authorities before the First World War but his idea was not taken up at the time and the tank was brought to fruition later by others.

[edit] Life

De Mole was born in Adelaide, the son of William Frederick de Mole, an architect and surveyor, and his wife Emily, née Moulden. His family moved to Victoria when he was 7 years old, and he was educated at the Melbourne Church of England Grammar School until 1891, and then the Berwick Grammar School. After leaving school he trained as an engineering draftsman.

In 1912 De Mole submitted an idea of a tracked armoured vehicle ("chain-rail vehicle which could be easily steered and carry heavy loads over rough ground and trenches") to the British War Office; in June 1913 he received a reply that his idea had been rejected. De Mole made several more proposals to the British War Office after 1912, in 1914 and 1916. In 1916 after the Mark I tank had been deployed, he asked to be recognized as the inventor, sending a one-eighth scale model of his invention. The British Royal Commission on Awards to Inventors in 1919 rejected his claim as an inventor of the tank, noting that De Mole: "had made and reduced to practical shape, as far back as the year 1912, a brilliant invention which anticipated, and in some respects surpassed, that actually put into use in the year 1916" but "a claimant must show a causal connection between the making of his invention and the user of any similar invention by the Government". Inquiries from the government of Australia, after the war, yielded polite responses that Mr De Mole’s ideas had unfortunately been too advanced for the time to be properly recognised at their just value. The Commission recognised the brilliance of De Mole's design, even considering that it was superior to the machines actually developed, but due to its narrow remit, could only make a payment of £987 to De Mole to cover his expenses; he was made an honorary corporal; in 1920 he was appointed CBE. A model of his tank is on display at the Australian War Memorial, Canberra.

After the war De Mole became an engineer in the design branch of the Sydney Water Board.