Gun Carriers were probably the first true self-propelled guns, writes historian David Fletcher
No example of a Gun Carrier Machine has survived since the Imperial War Museum scrapped their example at the Crystal Palace between the wars. However, the Imperial War Museum has a beautiful scale model.
Made by the model engineers Twinings, it appears to be perfect in every visible detail, so that will do as a prototype in this case. Failing that, the two types of gun that it could carry do survive if you know where to look. A 60-pounder Mark I was on display in the Imperial War Museum, and there is one in Canada, among other locations, while a 6in howitzer of the right period exists in several places including South Africa.
Major John Greg, then acting as technical director of the Metropolitan Carriage, Wagon and Finance Company, first suggested such a machine in 1916 to introduce a new type and to keep production lines going after the first tanks had been completed. He was joined in Birmingham by Walter Gordon Wilson, then serving as a lieutenant in the Royal Naval Air Service, but already being touted as something of a genius since he was one of the two men who designed the first tank. The other was Wi…
