Matilda Tank Census Number

[David Dunlop]

I'm looking at a British War Artists painting of a Matilda Tank assembly line in the London Midlands and Scottish Railway Shops at Horwich, sometime during the war.

Interestingly, the Matilda in the fore ground bears the number 'T191483' in white and this has peaked my curiosity. Could this actually be the legitimate number from a Matilda seen that day by the artist, or purely fictitious? Not sure if war artist paintings and drawings were under as strict a censorship as photographs were during the war.

David