My Grandfather Malcolm Sandison was part of C Squadron in the 17th/21st Royal Lancers in the mid-late 1950’s based in West Berlin, Germany. He was the driver of a Centurion Mk3 registration 02ZR72. For the past few years I have tried to track down his pride and joy, learning that the majority ended up being exported to Hong Kong for the Vietnam war and then onto Australia, Korea, New Zealand, Western countries and a fair few are still reportedly in use today. I have had no luck in finding this particular Centurion unfortunately or know what happened to it or whether it met it’s fate, and I wanted to do something extremely special for my Grandfather since time is getting on a bit. I’ve spent my entire life growing up listening to the amazing memories/stories he’s shared and told and they all evolve around this tank which he holds very dear to him! If anyone can shed any light on this I would be so very grateful and will forever be in your debt! In the meantime I am going to get into contact with Bovington to see about getting a copy of the key card relating to the tank, at least if possible this could also shed some key info on what eventually happened to the tank and hopefully allow me to find out the T number from which it was converted. Regards, Joseph
Hi Joseph, Try the Royal Logistics Corps,(RLC) web site, 02ZR72 is the ERM. A chap in Gloucester, was writing a book on them some years ago. for those that whent to Australia. Try the Australian War Memorial site, under nice body whats my ARN? (Army Registration Number) PDF. ARN 169000 to 169112 covers the Tanks.
Although the chance of finding more details is possibly remote, have you tried contacting the Royal Lancers HHQ at Grantham or the Museum at Thoresby Hall?
Hi Kevin, yes it had “Genevieve” painted onto one of the jerry cans so probably never lasted. Was named after the 1953 film. Kind regards
Hi, I spoke with the tank museum and unfortunately it was at the bottom of a list which suffered from flood damage in a filing cabinet :-( The writing was far too gone to make out. I then got speaking to a chap called Tim Vibert who had all of the Cents post Vietnam at his tank park in Mullengandra, Australia and to his knowledge it didn’t go there. All of the Cents that the Australian army still had after Vietnam he bought and acquired the lot in bulk. Just no 02ZR72. :-(
Hi Joseph. I can’t help with your search, wish I could, but have you thought about putting together a model of the Mk.3 for your Grandad, detailing it to represent the one he drove? You may well have already done this, of course. I see you can buy the 1:35 kit of the Mk3, albeit a Korean War version, but I’m guessing it can be adapted to represent your Grandfather’s, not that I profess to know if there would be any differences between this one and his. Stupid idea I know, not exactly the same as finding it for real! AFV Club AF35303 British Army Centurion Mk 3 (Korean War) 1:35 Model Kit AFV Club AF35303 1/35 British Army Centurion Mk 3 (Korean War)
