A hunt for the world’s first tank has gathered fresh momentum after a series of new clues have pointed investigators towards what may be her final resting place beneath heathland at Bovington.
Volunteers searching for the legendary World War One prototype tank known as Mother, believe new wartime accounts and aerial photographs provide the strongest evidence yet that the historic vehicle was secretly buried during World War Two rather than scrapped.
Final photos of Mother, from 1928, show that she had been stripped of her weapons, engine and tracks – but was she then buried or scrapped?
Was tank secretly buried to save her?
The latest discoveries have been made public after the Operation Mother team spent three days at Tankfest 2026, where hundreds of visitors stopped at their stand at The Tank Museum to hear about one of military history’s most enduring mysteries.
When the British government issued a demand for metal to build munitions at the start of World War Two, did the world’s first tank fall victim to the scrappers, or was she saved by staff who secretly buried her on the Bovington site?
A letter was unearthed in the Tank Museum’s archives written by Lieutenant Colonel N Dillon about the wartime activities of a friend who had been based at Bovington, which read:
“Major Bill Brannon found the scrap metal staff beginning to demolish some of the old tanks. It was noon, and they knocked off for lunch.
“Meanwhile, Bill organised a towing tank and pulled out four of the oldest tanks and buried them in the driving area. These four included Mother and Musical Box, all happily still with us.”
Edward Bugden, who told his children he had secretly buried tanks at Bovington
Months of painstaking research
Leading the treasure hunt for Mother is Tank Museum volunteer Staff Sergeant Anthony Cherrett, who says that many months of painstaking research have begun to uncover independent pieces of evidence that all point in the same direction.
The biggest breakthrough has come from Richard Bugden, whose late father Edward served with the Royal Engineers before becoming Bovington Camp’s chief civil engineer and working there from 1939 until his retirement in 1960.
Richard recently met the Operation Mother team and shared original family documents, together with a story that had been passed down through his family for decades.
According to both Richard and his sister, now in her nineties, their father told them he had helped Royal Tank Regiment officers bury several tanks at Bovington during the early years of World War Two, but instructed them to keep it secret.
Aerial photos of the Bovington training ground from the 1940s show four holes, outlined in red, large enough to bury a tank in
“Told his children to keep it a big secret”
Anthony Cherrett said:
“He was basically reconstructing the camp during the war. He was responsible for the reservoir, the damming works and many of the buildings that are still here today.
“His son and daughter both remembered that he said he buried tanks at Bovington and told them to keep it a big secret – and we know he was more than capable of carrying out that operation.
“We had already identified an area that we hadn’t gone public with where several large features – holes in the driver training area at Bovington which were large enough to bury a tank in – appear on wartime aerial photographs.
“Richard Bugden said the burial site was between the reservoir and the road, which is exactly where those holes are. That’s when we started taking his story really seriously.”
Early bulldozers were in use by the British Army in the 1940s and could have been used to bury tanks quickly
“Now we have proof”
Anthony added:
“The aerial photographs, taken in 1940, show a cluster of substantial excavations and disturbed ground within the old Driver Training Area.
“We are not claiming the holes are definitely the burial site of Mother, but we do believe they answer one of the biggest objections raised by sceptics.
“One of the questions people always ask is how could such a large tank have been buried so quickly? We’ve always believed there were already holes large enough to take a tank in that area and now we have proof.
“She would still have had to be covered over, but you wouldn’t necessarily have needed to dig a completely new grave. Heavy earthmoving equipment existed in the British Army and the Royal Engineers at the time, Caterpillar D7 bulldozers were already in military service.
“If large scale engineering works were already underway at Bovington, and if heavy equipment was already present on site, then the practical challenge of moving or burying a tank becomes considerably less extraordinary than it might first appear.
“The aerial photos definitely show large holes in exactly the area we’ve repeatedly been pointed towards.”
Major General Nigel Duncan (front) who seems to have believed postwar reports at Bovington that Mother was saved
‘Some exhibits have been buried’
The Bugden family’s testimony is not the only historical account now attracting renewed attention. Operation Mother has also highlighted comments made by Major General Nigel Duncan, who helped rebuild the Tank Museum after World War Two.
Duncan had served at Bovington during the 1920s when Mother formed part of the Army’s early historic tank collection, and after returning to the camp in 1947, he reportedly told the top brass that ‘some exhibits had been buried, but he couldn’t remember where.’
Although Duncan was not present when Mother disappeared, Anthony Cherrett believes the fact he repeated the story after speaking to former soldiers suggests there was genuine substance behind it.
The interwar Tank Park at Bovington was the beginnings of the modern museum, but many exhibits went missing during World War Two
“Another really big lead”
Anthony Cherrett said:
“I consider Major General Duncan’s evidence to be another really big lead. He came back after the war and started asking where all the museum pieces had gone – some had been scrapped to make munitions, others had ended up at Lulworth, Wool, or other locations.
“I assume he asked the obvious question: ‘Where is Mother?’ and yet he never says she was scrapped, but instead says that some of the old tanks had been buried on the driver training area.
“The information he received was convincing enough for him to tell a Colonel they were buried at Bovington and that he should go looking for them.
“They were trying to raise funds to get a Royal Air Force plane that detects submarines to fly over the area to see if they could pick it up, but they just couldn’t raise the money.
“At this point there were still people around with answers to some of the questions I have been asking, and they must have been convincing enough answers to try to search for her – there has to be something out there, right?”
A sprocket from a Valentine tank, which has spent decades under the heath at Bovington, has survived remarkably well
Survived decades beneath the heath
The Operation Mother team is now crowdfunding to raise an extra £31,000 to fund a survey of the whole driver training area at Bovington with drones using the latest technology, hopefully in autumn 2026.
The team also believes Mother, if she is still underground, may be in better condition than many people imagine.
A recently recovered Valentine tank sprocket, found close to the suspected burial area, has survived for decades beneath the sandy heathland while remaining clearly recognisable.
Combined with the robust riveted steel construction of Mother itself, the discovery has strengthened hopes that substantial remains could still survive after more than 80 years.
King Charles in a British Army tank at the Tank Museum, Bovington, on Monday 6th July 2026
King Charles was shown 3D-printed equipment and search and attack drones at Bovington during his visit
King Charles visited Bovington
Meanwhile researchers continue examining hundreds of historic letters and photographs held by The Tank Museum.
Anthony Cherrett even hopes King Charles, who visited Bovington in early July 2026 as Colonel in Chief of the Royal Tank Regiment, could one day lend his support to the cause, and said:
“We don’t really know how to approach him about Mother, but his great grandfather King George V visited Bovington in 1928 and there’s a photograph of him with Little Willie.
“We’re also hoping that the photographer took hundreds of pictures on that day as King George V walked past the early tanks, and that they are still in existence somewhere.
“You never know – one of them might just show Mother.”
King George V, King Charles’s great grandfather, visited Bovington in 1928 and saw the world’s oldest tank, Little Willie
Staff Sergeant Anthony Cherrett, raising a glass to the success of a fundraising drive which may finally find Mother
Further information
- The fundraising push by Operation Mother is on GoFundMe
- The history of The Tank Museum is on its website
