Albert Gerald Stern Sir Albert Gerald Stern ( 1878 – 1966 ) was a banker who became the Secretary of the Landships Committee during World War I , where his organisational ability and influence in financial circles assisted the Committee in creating the first British tank . During the war he came into conflict with the War Office but had the advantage of direct access to the Prime Minister , and no civil service career to protect . He was removed from direct involvement in the production of tanks and sidelined . Early life . Born the second son of James Julius Stern , a merchant banker , Albert Stern was educated at Eton and Christ Church , Oxford before entering the family business , becoming known in the City of London as " The Holy Terror " . Although he negotiated a large loan to the sultan of Morocco , Albert Stern had no real flair as a merchant banker . At the outbreak of the First World War he tried to join the armed forces but experienced difficulty doing so due to a weak ankle . He offered to supply the Admiralty with an armoured car at his own expense and was eventually commissioned as a Lieutenant in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve at the end of 1914 , when he joined the Armoured Car Division of the Royal Naval Air Service . Landships Committee . Stern originally became involved with landships as an assistant to Flight Commander Thomas Hetherington , RNAS . In 1915 he became Secretary of the Landships Committee . In February 1916 Lloyd George appointed him head of what was to become known as the Mechanical Warfare Supply Department , under the Ministry of Munitions , which controlled the procurement and supply of tanks . Stern was transferred to the Army where he eventually attained the rank of Lieutenant - Colonel . Stern believed in the application of business methods to war production with the minimum of interference from professional soldiers . Stern and his ally on the committee Eustace d ' Eyncourt ( Director of Naval Construction and designer of many of the Royal Navy ' s latest ships ) attempted to use their influence with Lloyd George to influence the employment of tanks . However , neither had a military background nor had they spent much time on the frontline , and GHQ became irritated at their interference in their affairs . Stern was removed from his post and given the task of coordinating an Allied tank , which resulted in the Tank Mark VIII a few of which were built towards the end of the war . Special Vehicle Development Committee . Until the creation in 1939 of the Ministry of Supply , the War Office had issued specifications for weapons it required and then chose from the proposals submitted in response by manufacturers . In the case of tank production there were only two manufacturers with the required skills : Vickers and the Royal Arsenal , Woolwich . Leslie Burgin , the Minister of Supply , was worried about the ongoing expansion of the German armoured forces and realized that he needed the help of an expert in tank warfare who could understand the army ' s requirements . He therefore selected Stern , who was now 62 . Despite his age , Stern was on the boards of the Midland Bank , the Clydesdale Bank , and the Bank of Romania . He was also helping to prevent the Germans ' attempts to take over the Romanian oil industry . When he was approached to talk to Burgin about tanks , he seized the opportunity since he too had been worrying about the type of tank that the army would need in the forthcoming war . He met with General Sir Maurice Taylor , the Ministry ' s chief military advisor , but the meeting did not go well since Taylor expressed the view that he was satisfied with the state of Britain ' s tank development . However , Taylor ' s assistant , General Davidson , told Stern of his concerns about the lack of investment in tank production in a private meeting . When Stern reported back to Burgin , he appointed Stern the head of the Special Vehicle Development Committee . Stern then began selecting the members of the committee , including many people who had been part of the development of the tank during World War I , including former Director of Naval Construction , Eustace d ' Eyncourt , Sir Ernest Swinton ( now a director of Citroën ) , engine designer Harry Ricardo , and the gearbox and transmission expert Major W G Wilson . Unsurprisingly they got the nickname " The Old Gang " . It soon became obvious that the SVDC lacked power , but General Ironside , Chief of the Imperial General Staff , was helpful . Aware of the inadequacy of the tank designs currently in service , he assisted the committee in finding accommodation where they could produce an initial tank specification . TOG 1 & TOG 2 . Together they proposed the development of a " heavy tank " design , the TOG 1 , an acronym for " The Old Gang " , which was the Committee ' s nickname for themselves . Production was carried out by another of the first tank ' s developers and builders , Sir William Tritton of Foster ' s of Lincoln . Designed with trench crossing abilities to the fore and the capability to carry infantry as well , the design was a large hull with side doors supported on broad tracks , with a small turret on top . The prototype TOG 1 was delivered in October 1940 . After problems with the electro - mechanical drive , it was converted to hydraulic drive , a process that took until May 1943 after which it was called TOG 1A . The prototype was sent to Chobham and then seems to have disappeared into history . The second design to come out of the SVDC , the TOG 2 was similar to the TOG 1 and kept many of its features , but mounted the latest tank gun , the QF 17 - pounder ( 76 . 2 mm ) . Instead of the track path arrangement of the TOG 1 which was like that of the First World War British tanks , the track path was lower on the return run and the doors were above the tracks . It was ordered in 1940 , and built by Foster ' s of Lincoln , and the prototype ran for the first time in March 1941 . Although fitted with the same electro - mechanical drive as the TOG 1 , the TOG 2 used twin generators and no problems were reported . It was modified to include among other things a change from the unsprung tracks for a torsion bar suspension and as the TOG 2 * was successfully trialled in May 1943 . No further development occurred , although a shorter version , the TOG 2 ( R ) was mooted . The TOG 2 can be seen at the Bovington Tank Museum . Unfortunately , once Winston Churchill - with whom Stern had had a blazing row in 1917 - took over as Prime Minister on 10 May 1940 , Stern and the work of the SVDC were sidelined . Despite this , the SVDC went on to develop specifications for a cruiser tank which was vigorously promoted by Stern . The Tog design was also sidelined by the good cross - country performance of the Churchill tank which had been designed by Harland and Wolff ( and subsequently improved by Vauxhall Motors ) to cross shelled ground . Honours . In 1917 Stern received the honour of Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George , and was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1918 . He became High Sheriff of Kent and a Deputy Lieutenant for Kent in 1952 .