The Boston Tank.

The First World War tank that once stood at the end of Bargate Green opposite the main Post Office was formally handed over to the town in August 1919. The tank drove through the town on its own power to the spot where it stood and thousands of people watched its uncanny and noisy journey through the streets. It was handed over by Captain Farrar, the tank Commander, because Boston and District had subscribed thousands of pounds to the various war loans.

The gift to Boston in 1919.

 

In the course of his remarks Captain Farrar revealed that Boston's tank was a female!! There were two distinct types of tanks, he said. The male carrying two six pound Hotchkiss guns and the female carrying six Lewis guns and about 24,000 rounds of ammunition - and the female of the species was deadlier than the male! He went on to say that there had been a lot of criticism about the distribution of war-torn tanks as war relics, people said they did not wish to be reminded of the killing and ruthlessness of the greatest war the world had ever known, in the form of an old tank. He respected their view but wanted to point out the other side.
The tanks, he said, stood as an emblem of British ingenuity, British resourcefulness and British brains. The tank, some people thought, was made as a life taker. It was not. It was made primarily as a life saver. The Boston Corporation hoped that it would be a memorial, not only for the present generation, but for generations to come too, but in 1937 Thos. W. Ward, Ltd., of Sheffield, bought the tank and a German field gun from the council as scrap metal at the price of £56.

Search for "tank" to see Goodbye to the tank on a previous story.

Goodbye to the tank.

In early September 1937, large metal cylinders similar to torpedoes in shape and size, appeared alongside the First world war tank near the war memorial in Bargate, followed by the appearance of two workmen. These proved to be employees of Thos. W. Ward, Ltd., of Sheffield, who had recently bought the tank and the German field gun from the council as scrap metal at the price of £56.
The workmen said that the large tubes were part of the oxy-acetylene plant with which the tank and field gun would, within the course of that week, be taken to pieces. Oxy-acetylene burners they said would bore their way through the side plates of the tank, one side of which would be removed first, and the weapon would be gradually taken to pieces suitable for handling by the workmen. The field gun would also be taken to pieces in the same manner. The work was expected to last the week and on the morning of September 2nd. the work was being watched by an interested crowd.
Two years later we would be at war with Germany again and probably some of the scrap metal went into building arms for the new war effort but personally I wish we still had the tank and field gun. Not many pictures have survived of the tank or field gun, in the one below which was taken in 1921 at the unveiling of the war memorial the tank can just about be seen under the crowd of children sitting on it!! In the next one the tank is just visible.

Tank and Cannons

At the end of the Crimean War in 1856 Two Russian Cannon which had been captured at Sebastopol during 1854-5 were presented to the town by the War Office.

Later on they were joined by a First World War tank and were said to have been destroyed for scrap metal during the Second World War, although an anonymous commenter (see below) said that he played around them when he was a child and he was born in 1939.