Talk:Matilda I (tank)

Supposedly this tank (A-11) was never officially named "Matilda", and possibly this is only incorrect (nevertheless popular) post-war nickname, taken from A-12 Matilda. It should be checked. Pibwl 23:03, 11 Feb 2005 (UTC)


 * The nickname is not post war, but contemporary. The lack of an official 'christening' would not be one that would bother the British Army. I believe the sources are good enough. GraemeLeggett 15:17, 12 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * I have seen the reference to the Mk 1 as Mailtda in print. Comparison of the profile of the two also shows the Mk 1 to be the more ducklike. GraemeLeggett


 * I am not sure the nickname refers to Matilda Mc Duck - as far as I know, and could find on the internet, Matilda Mc Duck first appeared after WW2. Possibly it is named to another cartoon duck called Matilda? 151.41.207.236 12:30, 28 October 2006 (UTC)
 * Surely. Matilda McDuck first appeared in Carl Barks' private sketches in the 50's and in printed comics not before the 90's, when Don Rosa used her in his stories. There seems to be no references in the Internet to this cartoon duck the tank really got its name from. --Haltiamieli 12:43, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

Re the tank's name: the best source I could get my hands on was Chamberlain & Ellis' excellent British and American Tanks of World War II, but the connection between the name Matilda and a duck remains unexplained. Perhaps the truth can be found in Christy Campbell's Band of Brigands: The First Men in Tanks: see http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/000721460X, and note the review by Mr B.M. Smith. Smith says 'Interesting fact from the book; Matilda (Infantry Tank MkI), meaning "'mighty in battle' in old German." Not a comic duck or Hugh Elles's mistress...' Unfortunately I don't own the book, and can't seem to search it online. Mr Smith's claim is secondhand and doesn't qualify as a reliable source. Jack Garfield (talk) 09:33, 14 June 2009 (UTC)
 * The Christy Campbell book is on the 1914-18 period, so I wouldn't expect much on British tanks of the rearmament period. Matilda is an old German name with a meaning whether or not it was taken from a dcuk or anything else. I have seen it mentioned that it was a Vickers project name given by Carden.GraemeLeggett (talk) 10:33, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

I think "matilda" has always been a popular name for ducks (similar to "daisy" for cows). The Disney character was probably named in recognition of this association. Drutt (talk) 19:20, 4 August 2009 (UTC)


 * "Matilda" is an old Anglo-Saxon girl's name that IIRC means something like 'Mighty in Battle'. It is also sometimes spelt "Mathilda".


 * See Matilda (name). — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.7.147.13 (talk) 12:50, 5 January 2014 (UTC)

WikiProject Military history/Assessment/Tag & Assess 2008
Article reassessed and graded as start class. --dashiellx (talk) 17:58, 6 June 2008 (UTC)

Matilda the cartoon duck -a military museum source.
An exceptionally late response I know but having just visited the Queen's royal lancers and Nottinghamshire yeomanry museum museum, I have a photo of an info board which claims "The Matilda tank was named after a cartoon duck when the prototype was seen to travel with a continuous waddling' Photo available via email for editor wanting to see it. Possibly a case where "sources disagree" JRPG (talk) 15:23, 22 July 2014 (UTC)


 * My concern would be, is that Yeomanry Museum infoboard a reliable source?GraemeLeggett (talk) 17:58, 22 July 2014 (UTC)


 * The recently retired director of the Tank Museum, David Fletcher, has been quite clear about this and it is correct in the article now. 'Matilda' was a project code name that got attached to the tank. His upcoming book (aug 2017) will repeat this content. regards, DMorpheus2 (talk) 20:31, 21 June 2017 (UTC)

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Dimensions
The imperial dimensions given in the info box don't agree with the metric values. They appear to be those for the Matilda Mk II, a much larger tank. I don't have authoritative sources on the tank so I've only checked some of the other WP pages on the Matilda I and they all quote the metric values.

English WP

Mk 1

Length	18 ft 5 in (4.85 m)

Width	8 ft 6 in (2.28 m)

Height	8 ft 3 in (1.86 m)

Mk 2

Length	18 ft 5 in (5.61 m)[3]

Width	8 ft 6 in (2.59 m)[4]

Height	8 ft 3 in (2.51 m)

I don't know what background magic is used to create/maintain these info boxes, so I'll leave it up to someone else to make the edits (if edits are necessary) Scartboy (talk) 16:38, 9 July 2020 (UTC)

Outdated sources and Info?
I noticed that the article states the tank was outdated before it entered service, citing two videos from The Tank Museum from 2017 and 2020, however more recent videos from them (such as Matilda I – The Little Tank That Did | Tank Chat #176 ) assert the opposite. Given the tanks success in its only combat use (in 1940), and that it was comparably armed to many other mid 1930s tank, I'm inclined to the more recent scholarship.

Additionally the video I link provides proof of the origin of the Matilda name coming from the 1935 specifications, as it shows notes from the meeting where the tank is given that name as a code word

Not sure what the proper way to go about removing outdated sourced information is, I would think that more recent publications by the same authority have precedence other their older work. BenErroneous (talk) 03:18, 25 June 2024 (UTC)