Infantry Tank Mk III Valentine Mk II

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Developed privately (hence the lack of a government issued A number) the Valentine Tank served the British Army from 1941 through to (in some cases) the end of the War. The Mk.II version was powered by an AEC A190 131hp 6-cylinder diesel engine and armed with a 2pdr (40mm) Gun. There are several proposed explanations for the name Valentine. According to the most popular one, the design was presented to the War Office on St. Valentine’s Day, 14 February 1940, although some sources say that the design was submitted on Valentine’s Day 1938 or 10 February 1938. White notes that “incidentally” Valentine was the middle name of Sir John V. Carden, the man who was responsible for many tank designs including that of the Valentine’s predecessors, the A10 and A11. Another version says that Valentine is an acronym for Vickers-Armstrong Ltd Elswick & (Newcastle-upon) Tyne. The “most prosaic” explanation according to David Fletcher is that it was just an in-house codeword of Vickers with no other significance.