Tanks for the memories...

The Worthing tank was the result of the London Lord Mayor's Show of November, 1917.

Two of the new "land ships" were exhibited to the public at the show, and such was the success that the government decided to exhibit six of these Mark IV male tanks across England, Wales and Scotland to raise millions of pounds for War Bonds and War Savings Certificates in "Tank Bank Weeks".

When the war ended, it was decided to donate excess tanks to cities and major towns in Britain, which had given donations.

Known as "presentation tanks", they became familiar monuments in parks, outside town halls and many other public places.

Worthing had its own, also locally, Hove, Brighton and Lewes received theirs.

It is a tragedy that all the tanks were eventually scrapped between the 1920s and outbreak of World War II, apart from one single survivor in Ashford, Kent.

Adrian George

Hamilton Road

Lancing

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