ATTRIBUTED EARLY 20TH CENTURY CASED SET OF MOTORING MAPS. Early 20th Century Leather Cased Set of Bartholomew's Motoring Maps of England and Wales, the maps are attributed to Thomas Gerard Hetherington who was awarded the C.B.E. for his help in the development of the Tank in the First World War, the case itself has a 'fishtail' handle to the lid which is stamped with the owners initials 'T.G.H.' and '18TH HUSSARS', the inside lid is marked to the retailer 'SIFTON, PRAED & CO LTD, THE MAP HOUSE, 67 ST. JAMES'S ST, S.W.', the maps themselves have blue covers with the details of Sifton, Praed and Co and notes on the back cover that they are 'Mapsellers, Geographical and Military Booksellers and Stationers' the maps are 2 miles to an inch scale, the very early Bartholomew's maps were not date but from 1911 an abbreviated dating code was adopted using the last two digits of the year and the the letters 'A' or 'B' to indicate which half of the year the map was produced, of the 36 Maps in the case (sheet number 24 is absent) 4 were produced in 1911, 8 in 1912, 5 in 1913, 6 in 1914, 4 in 1915, 2 in 1916, 6 are trimmed at the bottom so no date is visible, and 1 is without a date so possible pre 1911, all of the maps are signed to the front 'T.G. Hetherington' in ink, some of the maps have place names marked in red ink on the covers, research shows these correspond to WW1 Royal Flying Corps Aerodromes,and sheet 10 has the initials 'T' or 'H.D.' next to the names, the initials stand for 'Training' and 'Home Defence', these maps also have the area of the aerodromes marked and shaded in red, to the side of the maps is stored a 'Contour' book of England by Gall and Inglis, this also has a Sifton, Praed & Co label inside, the case size is 40.5 cm x 11.5 cm x 20 cm, born in London on 19th June 1886 Thomas Gerard Hetherington was commissioned into the 18th Hussars on 29th January 1908, he obtained his Aviators Certificate at Brooklands in a Farman Biplane on 18th July 1911 and transferred to No.1 Company, Air Battalion, Royal Engineers, operating Airships, this later became No.1 Squadron Royal Flying Corps in May 1912, in July 1914 Hetherington was seconded to the Royal Naval Air Service as an Airship Instructor (shown on records as 'Employed under Admiralty') and after the outbreak of war was attached to No3 Wing RNAS at Dunkirk under Commander C.R. Samson who scratch built a unit of Armoured Cars to take on the Germans in Belgium, Hetherington was later given command of a section of purpose built armoured cars from the Admiralty, in December 1914 Hetherington moved to Wormwood Scrubs Naval Air Station as Transport Officer to the Armoured Car Division formed there and it was here, with others, that he began working on the ideas, some initially quite Heath Robinson, that resulted in the development of the Landship Committee and the first prototype tanks, in January 1916 he was given command of a detachment from No.20 Squadron, Royal Navy Armoured Car Division which provided the crew for 'Mother', the prototype of the Mark 1 Tank when it was demonstrated to senior officers at Hatfield Park, in January 1918 he was awarded the C.B.E. 'for service's in connection with the origination of the Tanks' (Gazetted 7.1.1918), he later transferred to the Royal Air Force serving as the Air Attache to Washington 1926-1930, and Rome in 1931, before retiring with the rank of Group Captain in 1935, Hetherington passed away on 14th October 1951 in London, interestingly, he is shown on his Royal Navy record as being on 'Survey Duties, Lighter than Air' on 10.4.16 and it is possible the maps were used while engaged on these duties.