A private £100,000 donation from William Bannister has propelled The Tank Museum’s King Tiger V2 restoration fundraiser to reach nearly half of its £1m target.
In September 2025, The Tank Museum announced its ambition to raise £1m to restore the world’s oldest surviving King Tiger in existence. After just 8 months of launching the appeal, supporters have rallied together to raise nearly half the amount of funds required to restore King Tiger V2 to as close as possible to the condition it was when it fell into Allied hands.
Built in December 1943 by Henschel, King Tiger V2 spent its entire service at Henschel’s testing facility in Germany. Following being captured by Allied forces, King Tiger V2 was found fully stowed and ready to fight – although it is not believed it ever fired a shot in anger.
The Museum’s Workshop Team have commenced work on the restoration project, with solid progress being made so far. The most recent milestone was the removal of the final drives, enabling the team to prepare the hull ready to be washed down before putting on blocks to begin the removal of the road wheels.
Nick Booth, Director of Curatorial Services, said: “We are so grateful to William for his generous donation towards the restoration project of the unique King Tiger V2. We have worked with William for several years and his remarkable collection of historic vehicles often joins our own running fleet of vehicles during our live action displays.
“Restoring such a rare and historically significant Second World War tank is a complex and challenging undertaking. Not only is King Tiger the oldest in existence, but it’s also the only surviving King Tiger with a pre-production turret.
“Thanks to this donation, alongside the generosity of our other supporters, we are now closer to achieving our fundraising goal – however, we still have a way to go, and we are very grateful to any new supporters to help us reach our target.”
