Thatcher’s estate to auction ‘that Tank’

On the lookout for an Argie, or an Arthur

A Challenger Tank once driven by Margaret Thatcher, is to be sold in aid of orphans Carol and ‘Sir’ Mark Thatcher.

Chuffed by the sale of a red ministerial box for £242,500, the family are keen to sell some other things that taxpayers thought they’d paid for.

The dusty Battle Tank, ‘found’ in a mews lock-up near her last home, with its keys still in the ignition, will shortly go under the hammer, as will an armoured Jaguar and three, armed, Special Branch Officers which will be sold together as a job lot.

A signed typescript of her famous speech, reciting the words of St Francis of Assisi, “Where there is discord, may we bring harmony,” has already sold for £37,500 and came with a free wooden bit to be clenched between the teeth whilst reading.

Meanwhile, estate agents Knight Frank have valued Chequers, a period country house in Buckinghamshire, which Sir Mark discovered in the bottom of his mother’s dressing table.