Museum Historian Wins National Heritage Award.

Tank Museum Historian David Fletcher has been awarded the 2009 Bart Vanderveen Challenge Shield for outstanding meritorious service to the military vehicle preservation movement.

The Bart Vanderveen Challenge Shield is awarded annually at The War & Peace show in Kent to the individual nominated by readers of various military vehicle journals.

David said; “I feel most honoured, the military vehicle preservation movement has grown by leaps and bounds over the years and I have enjoyed my association with it but, in the end, I have only been doing my job"

Bart Vanderveen died in 2001, but his association with military vehicles, their origins, history, preservation and restoration is legendary within the community.

From 1982 until his death, he compiled and edited Wheels & Tracks, attaining a reputation around the world for detail and accuracy. The Bart Vanderveen Challenge Shield was inaugurated in 2002 and sponsored by After the Battle, publishers of Wheels & Tracks magazine.

David said; “Bart was a long time friend of mine, I guess we must go back 40 years at least. He was a real stickler for accuracy and like most foreigners (Bart was Dutch) his care over the English language was meticulous – much better than mine"

David is widely regarded as the world expert on the subject of armoured vehicles and has, over his 30 year association with The Tank Museum, made an enormous contribution to the military vehicle heritage community worldwide.

Former Tank Museum Director Colonel George Forty said; “What an invaluable cog he is in that ever growing 'wheel' - should I say 'track' in that amazing museum, and I can think of no one more deserving of the Bart Vanderveen Trophy than David.”