[Aide Memoire]

Originally Posted by Ed Storey

Thank you for posting these photographs into this discussion. I must advise you to be very cautious when doing your research from the internet as for example your date assumption in which the photographs were taken is incorrect.

You're assuming I made an assumption.

Photos have MIKAN numbers. Descriptions and dates are Harold Skaarup's. While the Internet is indeed the Wild, Wild West...I think Harold's pages live in the tamer part. I've seen incorrect photo descriptions originating from Library and Archives Canada before, however, so that may well be the case.

By posting the images you can draw on the collective knowledge of this forum to answer your questions, but at the end of the day you won't learn anything as in effect everyone else will be doing the work for you. And ultimately, the conclusions provided by the forum may not be correct.

Misery-shared, as they say. I imagine others here have tried to identify their own museum's acquisitions and history of same so it seemed a good place to start rather than re-tread well-trodden ground. So far it's been very helpful as there are many knowledgeable people about.

Secondly you should have asked yourself what Mark of tank are they and at what time frame was that Mark used by the Canadian Army? To your credit you did check on the WD number but without a clear understanding of Canadian vehicle markings (another in-depth area of study in itself) you will not be able to correctly analyse what you are looking at in the photographs with respect to time-line.

Fortunately as mentioned before, there are a great many knowledgeable people about capable of answering those questions and lending perspective. It's what we do as a museum/ collector community, isn't it?

I have to ask, do you at least own a copy of the Service Publications book by Don Dingwall on the Centurion Tank?

Thusfar I've not been able to prize it from the clutches of innumerable fingers faster than my own, but if left unattended for any period of time I'll certainly make a play for it.

You have stumbled upon an attributed WD number to a Canadian Centurion so I must now also ask, other than seeking answers from this forum, what should be your next move?

Well, the WD number (and indeed that specific tank) were just tangential to having a go at sanding a likely area where a WD or CFR would have been painted, again in the pursuit of trying to identify the Cornwallis tank. Because the marking and use of the British number seemed anomalous to usual practice...I believed it to be of group interest.