Major General Sir Ernest Dunlop Swinton, KBE, CB, DSO (21 October 1868 – 15 January 1951) was a British Army officer who played a part in the development and adoption of the tank during the First World War.

He is credited, along with fellow officer Lieutenant-Colonel Walter Dally Jones, with having initiated the use of the word "tank" as a code-name for the first British, tracked, armoured fighting vehicles.

[5] Although principally concerned with railway construction, he took a keen interest in tactics, fortifications, and the effectiveness of modern weaponry, especially the recently introduced machine-gun.

[9] Swinton recounts in his book Eyewitness how he first got the sudden idea to build a tank on 19 October 1914, while driving a car in France.

Marriott occasionally sent Swinton news of technical developments that might have a military application, and his letter described a machine he had seen in Antwerp, an American-made Holt Caterpillar Tractor.

In Britain, David Roberts of Richard Hornsby & Sons had attempted starting in 1911 to interest British military officials in a tracked vehicle, but failed.

When World War I broke out, with the problem of trench warfare and the difficulty of transporting supplies to the front, the pulling power of crawling-type tractors drew the attention of the military.

In November 1914 he suggested to Sir Maurice Hankey, Secretary of the Committee of Imperial Defence, the construction of a bullet-proof, tracked vehicle that could destroy enemy machine guns.

[11] In July 1915, Swinton was given a prominent post in the War Office[12] and became aware of the Landship Committee, which was entirely under the control of the Admiralty; he formed a working friendship with its secretary, Albert Gerald Stern.

[17] In April 1918, while on a tour of the US, Swinton visited Stockton, California, to publicly honour Benjamin Holt and the company for their contribution to the war effort and to relay Britain's gratitude to the inventor.