What name did William Foster & Company of Lincoln give to their first prototype military tank of 1915?

'Little Willie' was a prototype in the development of the British Mark I tank. Constructed in the autumn of 1915 at the behest of the Landships Committee, it was the first completed tank prototype in history. 'Little Willie' is the oldest surviving individual tank, and is preserved as one of the most famous pieces in the collection of The Tank Museum, Bovington, England.

Work on 'Little Willie's' predecessor was begun in July 1915 by the Landships Committee to meet Great Britain's requirement in World War I for an armoured combat vehicle able to cross a 8-foot (2.4 m) trench. After several other projects with single and triple tracks had failed, on 22 July William Ashbee Tritton, director of the agricultural machinery company William Foster & Company of Lincoln, was given the contract to develop a "Tritton Machine" with two tracks. It had to make use of the track assemblies - lengthened tracks and suspension elements (seven road wheels instead of four) - purchased as fully built units from the Bullock Creeping Grip Tractor Company in Chicago.