THE world's first tank, Little Willie, will be celebrating its 100th birthday at Bovington 's Tank Museum during September.

Although Little Willie never saw active service, its creation marked the start of a century of tank design.

During the birthday ceremony on September 10, a descendent of one of Little Willie's designers, Piers Wilson, will be guest of honour.

A Tank Museum spokesman explained: "In 1915 the First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, created a landships committee to tackle the problems of trench warfare.

"After many experiments and false starts an agricultural firm, William Foster and Co, of Lincoln, was contracted to build a prototype machine.

"Its designers William Tritton and Walter Wilson came up with a set of workable tracks which were fitted to the 'landship' now knows as Little Willie."

The tank's name was apparently chosen to reflect an uncomplimentary nickname for the German Crown Prince Kaiser Wilhelm.

"By the time Little Willie was built Wilson and Tritton had already come up with an improved idea of a machine with tracks running all the way around the vehicle," the spokesman explained. "This would become the classic British design of the Great War. Thus Little Willie was redundant, almost as soon as it was built."

Little Willie is one of more than 300 exhibits at The Tank Museum, which holds the national collection of tanks.

The museum tells the story of this British invention from the Great War to the present day in five exhibitions.

Piers Wilson is the grandson of Walter Wilson.