Shrapnel
The technical definition of shrapnel is “an artillery projectile provided with a bursting charge, and filled with lead balls, exploded in flight by a time fuse”. It was a deadly and game-changing addition to the armaments of the British military and relects the name of its creator, Henry Shrapnel.
In the late 18th century cannons fired some form of exploding anti-personnel shell, known as canister and grape-shot, but they lacked the range that was often crucial in the heat of battle, rarely able to exceed 300 yards. Born in Bradford-on-Avon in 1761, Shrapnel entered the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich at the age of eighteen and began to conduct experiments to develop an effective long-range bursting shell that could be used against massed troops.
Initially, he tried to improve on existing ideas such as a hollow ball filled with explosive which was reliant upon the outer shell to shatter into jagged fragments, but none met his exacting requirements. Eventually, he decided to take a hollow sphere which he only partially filled with explosive, filling the rest of space with musket balls and adding a fuse to the filling hole. He then was able to develop a casing that was strong enough to withstand the forces from the initial propulsion but weak enough to be shattered by the bursting charge and produce a fuse that could be relied upon to explode at the requisite time.
After tours of duty abroad, Shrapnel was eventually able to demonstrate his “Spherical Case Shot” to the War Office, but they were slow to adopt it, the first recorded use of the shells being during the attack on Dutch Guyana and the capture of Surinam in 1804. It made Shrapnel the Georgian equivalent of an overnight success, earning him promotion to lieutenant colonel and the appointment of Assistant of artillery, a post which enabled him to carry out tests on his various inventions and innovations at the Carron iron foundry near Falkirk.
British gunners around the world soon attested to the deadly power of Shrapnel’s shell and the British Navy saw its potential to clear the decks of enemy ships in battle. Admiral Sir Sydney Smith was so impressed he even paid for a large order of the bursting shells out of his own pocket.
Shrapnel’s invention also helped thwart Napoleon’s sweep across Europe. It was first used in the battle of Vimeiro on August 21, 1808, and when Napoleon heard of the British success and the new weapon deployed, he ordered that the battlefield be swept in case there were any unexploded shells tat his experts could study and copy. At the battle of Waterloo, General Sir George Wood, Wellington’s artillery commander, was firmly of the opinion that “without Shrapnel’s shells, the reco very of the farmhouse at La Haye Sainte, a key position in the battle, would not have been possible.”
Despite his shell’s prominent role in defeating Napoleon, Shrapnel remained an unsung hero, ironically because his invention was so important the government wanted it shrouded in secret. He was eventually awarded a pension of £1,200 but King William IV died before the baronetcy he was promised could be conferred upon him. He died in 1842 in Southampton and was buried in the family vault in Bradford-on-Avon.
Technology moved on and altered the shape of the shrapnel shell, although the central principle remained unaltered. Its deadly impact in the open led to the horrors of trench warfare in the First World War, used as a way to counter its effect. Henry Shrapnel may have been forgotten, but his legacy and his name lives on.
