Tank Nash (aka Sustainer) was born in Normanton, Yorkshire on 30 September 1939. Educated at Latymer Upper School, he joined the Honourable Artillery Company in 1957 and that started a love affair with the British Army that endures to this day. He was conscripted for National Service in 1960 and finished it 31 years later as a Brigadier.
For 25 years he has been a regular contributer to a variety of Service journals and his work usually appears under the pen name 'Sustainer'.
He has published innumerable short stories, articles and satirical essays. He has co-authored six cartoon books and his book The Colonel's Table (in, conjunction with Henry Stanhope) was published in 1995. Sustainer was, for five years, the Bursar of a leading independent School. He stood as a candidate for the Referendum Party in the 1997 General Election, and narrowly missed election by only 25,627 votes. He is now a Management Consultant and a resident columnist in The Officer.