Thanks! The Ford-Scammell and Chevrolet-Scammell FATs were trialled in 1938 with 18-pounder guns. The earliest reference that I have to FATs for 25-pounder guns was:
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On 30 September 1939, Stan Ellis himself cabled in code from the High Commission to Ford’s W.R. Campbell who was by then the Chairman of the War Supply Board, referring to Colonel N.O. Carr’s enquiry to the High Commission regarding the Guy Quad Ant. Carr stated that this vehicle had been designed throughout as a 4-wheel drive 25-Pounder gun tractor and was also equipped with a winch. Could Campbell explore the possibility of using the Marmon-Herrington front end drive on the Ford of Canada 101 [-inch] chassis with an off-centre to the left rear axle differential and a rear drive shaft from the rear side Marmon-Herrington front drive shaft takeoff position on the transfer case? It would be necessary to have an offset drive shaft to provide clearance for the Guy winch which apparently could be mounted in the [Ford chassis] frame with offset Hotchkiss drive shaft as close as practicable to the left side spring. The Guy winch was from a conventional drive shaft universal joint position; this was desirable unless a transmission power takeoff of 20 h.p. capacity was available to use with an Air Compressor. The Guy winch was the best type for their [Ford] design providing an off-centre drive shaft feasible. Ellis was mailing Blueprints of the Guy chassis and winch and anticipated body details later. A photograph of the body had been mailed to Carr, as well as the drawings of the Dunlop wheel on the 22nd.
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You can interpret this as the first evidence of the FGT (although strictly I suggest that the CGT probably preceded the FGT as a consequence of the agreed equalisation of projects at the time) being designed from the outset as a 25-pdr tractor. It also seems that the Guy Quad Ant of 1937-8 and the MCC equivalents that succeded were the first production tractors intended to tow the 25-pounder. However I can go back earlier to the 1937 WD Mechanization Board Report, which is the first reference to any trialled 25-pdr tractor:
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Latil four-wheeled four-wheel drive tractors
These vehicles were stated to be of French origin (SA Latil, Suresnes, Seine) although assembled in England using British components. They were in fact produced by Shelvoke & Drewry of Letchworth Garden City between 1932 and 1937, and then by Latil Industrial Vehicles in Fulham, London. The tractors were under consideration as FATs for the Government of India. The Mark 1 was fitted with a Meadows engine (3,868cc/53bhp) and the Mark II with a Latil unit (4,084cc/75bhp). Trials on behalf of the Government of India were carried out at the MEE [Farnborough, Hampshire] in September 1937. It was not possible to carry a load on either tractor because of lack of body space and the designers considered that the weight of the heavy power-driven winch provided on each vehicle would give sufficient adhesion. Each tractor hauled an 18-pounder gun and limber loaded to represent a 25-pdr gun and limber. The Report stated that they were ‘interesting vehicles’ and that their individual performance was ‘good’. However as tractors they suffered from lack of adhesion because of unsuitable tyre equipment and lack of weight......
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