A rare Charioteer tank stopped people in their tracks at this year’s We Have Ways Fest. Craig Moore spoke with its owner and the team behind its restoration to find out more
The unveiling of a restored working British-built FV4101 Charioteer tank, painted in an off-white limestone colour, was one of the main surprises of the 2023 We Have Ways Fest. It is owned by tank enthusiast Lauren Child and has been restored by the team at Track and Wheel Heritage Ltd. The tank was quite the sensation, with most visitors not realising what it was.
Lauren works as a volunteer mechanic in the tank workshops at the Imperial War Museum Duxford in her spare time, getting her hands covered in oil and grease, and occasionally driving some of the fleet around the test track. The tank has been a nine-year labour of love to restore. “It was originally an A27M Cromwell gun tank and came out of the factory on August 14, 1944,” she explained.
“It is assumed that it was sent to Normandy with all the other Cromwell tanks and continued fighting into Germany until the end of World War Two. It returned to Britain, where it was converted into a Charioteer by having a new turret fitted that mounted a Royal Ordnance quick-firing 2…
