Only a few days to go and Tank Tour Two begins - resuming after a six year gap since TT1.
What is the Tank Tour? It’s a double act featuring myself, a journalist and filmmaker involved in the story of the Lincoln tanks on and off for 40 years, and the real source of knowledge - Military Historian Richard Pullen, Chairman of the Friends of the Lincoln Tank, and author of “Landships of Lincoln.”
Audiences will hear at least 45 minutes from both of us, each accompanied by a presentation of old images and films.
Look out also for an exhibition of authentic memorabilia that goes out with us, courtesy of the aforesaid Friends.
Through our deliveries, audiences will gain new insights into the story of William Foster & Co and the personalities who developed the first tanks which eventually, when properly deployed, gave the Allies battlefield superiority and helped to end the First World War.
New material that has come to light since 2018 has prompted Tour number two.
The first Tank Tour ran from the Centenary of the tank to the Centenary of the Armistice and Richard and I have fond memories of the 18 gigs we did in that time.
Not least because we collected stories - even at that late stage - from people who had met Sir William Tritton, who along with Major Walter Wilson, invented the tank in 1915.
One gentleman had been a young apprentice in William Foster & Co early in the Second World War when Sir William was still working in the company. He gave us an amusing anecdote about Sir William’s visits to the moulding shop.
Better still, it was through TT One that the trail led to Eva, aged 95. She had been a nurse at Lincoln County Hospital when the nurses accommodation was bombed in World War II.
The Matron asked those with sizeable houses nearby to offer temporary billeting for her nurses while the accommodation was fixed.
Thus Eva, and a fellow nurse, spent three months living with Sir William and Lady Tritton. She was able to give us priceless recollections of Sir William in his domestic sphere. She saw him as few others did, for the Trittons had no children.
What we can gather second time round remains to be seen and it has to be recognised that the passing of more years may well limit what is possible.
Nevertheless, there are many descendants of the Fosters workforce - not least the munitionettes (we heard of one who had 12 children after her wartime duties ended). Information or memorabilia that has passed down these families may come our way.
By going out into the Lincolnshire communities and meeting people in their own areas, we find they are more likely to dig out memorabilia which we can borrow and photograph for the keen researchers among the Friends.
We are delighted that this time round our sponsors are the historic White Hart Hotel, Lincoln, birthplace of the tanks in September 1915.
For those who don’t know the story, Tritton and Wilson needed privacy and secrecy as they worked to meet the requirements of the Admiralty’s Landships Committee.
Forsaking Foster’s Wellington Foundry in Lincoln’s industrial quarter downhill, they hired the Yarborough Room in the White Hart (so named because the Earl of Yarborough liked to meet in there with his chums in the nineteenth century).
It was in there that they designed the reliable tracks that would be fitted to Little Willie, the world’s first armoured tracked vehicle, and also where Major Wilson – seconded by the Landships Committee to work with Fosters – devised the rhomboid shape of the tank.
Nowadays the room is known more often as the Tank Room and it will be open from 6 pm when we launch TT2 on the night of Cambrai day – Wednesday, November 20th. Our “Dine with Heritage” night will be in the King Richard 11 suite. The travelling exhibition, courtesy Robin Wheeldon and Ray Sellars, will be in the adjoining Royal Courtyard.
At the time of writing there are still some tickets left (£39.95) available from this page:
More “gigs” fixed with more under discussion (evenings unless stated) :-
December 6th – private group
2025
March 12th – Newark Library (afternoon)
March 14th – Nettleham Village Hall
October 28th – Kirton in Lindsey Town Hall
Re-visit this blog or join our mailing list to learn of more bookings as they are arranged.
Andrew Blow – October 31st 2024
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