HOWARD/HARLAND, LIEUT
Neg. No: (GP) G 7991
Neg. Size: 15"x12"
Neg. Date: 27-4-1921

Subject: Officers and crew of the 5th Battalion Tank Corps (number 9 section, C company) with other sitters and three Mark V tanks (1918 model).

Sitters: (Probably including tank officers, Lieutenant L.S Harland [commanding], and Lieutenants A.P.B Paget & A.M. Ranson M.C).

Date: 27 April 1921.

Occasion: Photographed in connection with posting of the 5th Battalion Tank Corps (number 9 section) to Glasgow to support the civil authorities during the Miner's Strike of 1921.

The Mark V was designed in October 1917 and manufactured by the Metropolitan Carriage and Wagon Company Ltd. The Mark V was the last of the lozenge-shaped tanks to see service in any number. By 1918, many battles such as Hamel and the Battle of Amiens were planned with Mark V tanks as an integral part of the operation. The Mark V tank was a great improvement on its predecessors. It had a powerful purpose-built engine, as well as a new steering mechanism. It was more reliable, mobile and easier to control.

The three tanks had been sent to Maryhill Barracks (seen in the background) after the worst-ever riot in Glasgow on Friday, January 31, 1919, when Scottish workers were demanding a reduction in the 54-hour working week. After the riot, soldiers from Maryhill Barracks, with machine guns, tanks and a howitzer, occupied Glasgow's streets for a week to prevent any more gatherings. This image shows that the tanks remained stationed in Glasgow much longer than that week in 1919.

Location: Maryhill Barracks, Glasgow. (Maryhill Barracks was to gain fame twenty years after the date of this image, on 10 May 1941 when a man calling himself Rudolf Hess - claiming to be on a mission of peace parachuted into a field in Lanarkshire and demanded to be taken to see the Duke of Hamilton. He was taken by the local police and Home Guard to Maryhill Barracks.)

Descr: FL.

Costume: Service Dress, officers and crew, The Tank Corps & others.

Furniture & Props: -

Photographer: Lafayette Ltd.....Glasgow.

Evidence of photographer at work: -

No of poses: 1.

Copyright: V&A

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Provenance: Pinewood Studios; acquired 1989.

References:

Biog: -

Occasion: -

Costume: -

Orders, Decorations & Medals: -

Reproduced: -

Acknowledgements: David Fletcher, Librarian, The Tank Museum, Bovington.