Model Mk V Male Tank: Private John Fyfe Hunter, Tank Corps

Solid cast brass model of a Mk V male tank in roughly 1/60 scale, constructed in nine parts - the body, the two tank sides and track supports, two sponsons, two guns and two tracks. The side assemblies and sponsons are pinned or screwed to each side; the guns are soldered into the sponsons. The tracks are formed from loosely fitting bands of thin brass sheet. The left hand side gun is missing. The model is quite accurate in shape and proportion.

This model is associated with the service of 76514 Private John Fyfe Hunter, Tank Corps, and was probably made by him. Private Hunter, born in Alloa, Clackmannanshire, Scotland in 1896, was employed as a chauffer and miner before the war, and joined up on 30 January 1915 with 256 Company, Army Service Corps, where he was a driver.

On transferring to the Heavy Section Machine Gun Corps (the early iteration of the Tank Corps) at No 1 Tank Stores in January 1917 with the rank of gunner, he was employed as a tank mechanist and fitter. He served at the Central Workshops which had been established in the town of Erin, France, on a 6 acre plot, two and a half miles north of the Heavy Branch Headquarters at Bermicourt. When the main Workshops later moved to Tenuer, just a few miles northwest, in March 1918, the Tank Stores took over the entire Erin plot.

He was transferred to the Army Reserve on 4 July 1919, and discharged in 3 March 1920. In the 1920s he emigrated to Australia, settling in Victoria.

There is evidence in the two models (REL35333 and REL35334) that Hunter worked on both the Mark V and Whippet tanks. The Whippet was a fast tank, armed with machine guns, and used during the later part of 1918 by the British Army. The Mark V was first used in mid 1918, and was the prevalent heavy tank used during the great August advances of that year. It is distinguishable from the Mark IV by the louvres behind the sponsons, indicating a different engine.