By the end of May the last company had completed its training at Bisley and had moved to Elveden; the headquarters, having some time prior to this, moved to this place and established itself in the stables of Lord Iveagh’s mansion and in the new almshouses in Elveden village.

By the beginning of July training was sufficiently advanced to give the first tank demonstration ever held. Twenty tanks took part in it and advanced in line followed by infantry against a section of the instructional trench system. The demonstration was a great success and many notable persons witnessed it, including Mr. Lloyd George and Sir William Robertson.

This demonstration was shortly afterwards followed by a second at which the King attended. His Majesty was most anxious that his projected visit should be kept secret, but as it was nevertheless necessary to make certain preparations it was given out at the camp that a very distinguished Russian general was about to visit the tanks. The identity of the Russian general was, however, discovered by the bulk of the men before the demonstration was concluded, much to their pleasure and amusement.

At the beginning of August Lieutenant-Colonel Brough, C.M.G., visited G.H.Q., France, to ascertain the tactics it was proposed to employ as regards tanks. Unfortunately his visit was fruitless, for no ideas apparently existed on the subject. Shortly after his return instructions were received to dispatch the tank companies to France, and to decide on this a conference was held at which the following officers were present: Major-General Butler, Brigadier-General Burnett-Stuart, both from G.H.Q., France; Lieutenant-Colonel Swinton, Lieutenant-Colonel Bradley, and Lieutenant-Colonel Brough. At this Conference it was decided to mobilise the companies at Elveden and to dispatch them overseas by half companies. The first to leave was C Company and the second D Company, which, respectively, were under the commands of Majors Holdford-Walker and Summers.

Towards the end of August Colonel Swinton was instructed to send over to France a staff officer, but as the establishments only allowed of a commander and one staff captain, and as the latter was a very junior officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Brough was sent over. Shortly after his arrival he found it necessary to wire home for motor-cars, clerks, etc., for he had been ordered to take over command of the units in France. Captain Kingdon was thereupon sent out to assist him, and two clerks and a motor-car were also dispatched. By these means were extemporised an advanced headquarters, the original headquarters of the Heavy Branch remaining in England and never proceeding overseas.

In October 1916, as already related in [Chapter VI], Bovington Camp, Wool, was selected as the new training centre. Here E, F, G, H, and I Battalions were raised and trained during 1916–1917, and J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, and R during 1917–1918, the last battalion, the 18th, sailing for France in September 1918.

In 1917, to cope with the steadily increasing number of tank units of all descriptions, Worgret Camp, Wareham, and Lulworth were taken over, the Depot Reserve Unit being established at the former and the Gunnery Camp at the latter place.

The first schools to be formed were the Tank Drivers’ School, the 6-Pounder School, and the Lewis Gun School, but by degrees, as the Tank Corps grew, these developed until at the close of the war the following schools had been established:

In July 1918 the preparations set on foot to double the Tank Corps for 1919 threw a great deal of work on to the Training Centre. Thirteen British, three Canadian, and one New Zealand Battalion were to be raised, as well as a number of subsidiary units. In August, in spite of shortage of infantry reinforcements, an allotment, given precedence over all the other arms, of 4,500 men, was made to the Tank Corps Training Centre, so that the raising of the above new units might forthwith begin; besides this, nearly half a million pounds worth of buildings were sanctioned without estimates being called for, so important was it now considered that not a day should be lost in the Tank Corps preparations for 1919.