National Museum of the Royal Navy launches £10,000 fundraising plea to finish LCT 7074 conservation

MUSEUM bosses have launched a fundraising plea for £10,000 in a bid to finish restoring the last surviving D-Day landing craft tank and display it in Portsmouth.
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The 200ft-long Second World War survivor, LCT 7074, will take pride of place outside the D-Day Story museum in Southsea sometime next year.

But the National Museum of the Royal Navy needs cash to complete conservation work – and is asking for Good Samaritans to help them.

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In doing so the museum will take part in the Big Give Christmas Challenge, a UK campaign that match-funds participating charities’ donations.

LCT 7074 landing craftLCT 7074 landing craft
LCT 7074 landing craft

Between midday on Tuesday, December 3 and Tuesday, December 10, it is hoped the drive will help plug the ‘small funding gap' for LCT 7074.

Museum chiefs said donations received in this time will be doubled by two ‘champions' at BAE Systems and the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

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It will mark the first time the National Museum of the Royal Navy has ever taken part in the non-profit campaign.

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Amy Crichton, deputy head of fundraising at The National Museum of the Royal Navy, said: ‘We would love to raise £10,000 through this campaign and this will go towards the small funding gap we still need to fill for the project.

‘Completing the fundraising for LCT 7074 will be the best Christmas present the National Museum could wish for.

‘It’s really simple and for every donation made during that week, it’ll be worth double. That means if someone donates £10, it’ll be worth £20.’

The National Museum of the Royal Navy said last year the project to restore and display LCT 7074 had received £4.7m of lottery funding.

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It was £916,000 from the National Heritage Memorial Fund which allowed the museum to recover her from Birkenhead, where she was sunk.

She is the sole surviving landing craft tank left in Britain after D-Day on June 6, 1944.

Codenamed Operation Neptune, it was the largest seaborne invasion in history and was critical in the Allies' Second World War victory.

To take part in the Big Give Christmas Challenge for LCT 7074, go to the National Museum’s website on December 3, at bit.ly/big-give-LCT

The museum will also be posting updates on its Twitter feed for those interested in following the fundraising drive.

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