imported>Wham2001: Changing short description from "British Army officer" to "British Army officer (1761–1842)"

2025-11-16T18:48:32Z

Changing short description from "British Army officer" to "British Army officer (1761–1842)"

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{{Short description|British Army officer (1761–1842)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2021}}
{{Infobox military person
|name = Henry Shrapnel
|image = henry-shrapnel.jpg
|caption = Portrait of Shrapnel, 1817
|birth_name =
|birth_date = {{birth date|1761|6|3|df=yes}}
|birth_place = [[Bradford on Avon]], [[Wiltshire, England|Wiltshire]]
|death_date = {{death date and age|1842|3|13|1761|6|3|df=yes}}
|death_place = [[Southampton]], [[Hampshire]]
|death_cause =
|resting_place =
|resting_place_coordinates =
|branch = [[British Army]]
|service_years=1779–1825
|allegiance = [[United Kingdom]]
|rank = [[Lieutenant-general (United Kingdom)|Lieutenant-General]]
|battles = {{Tree list}}
*[[American Revolutionary War]]
*[[French Revolutionary Wars]]
**[[Low Countries theatre of the War of the First Coalition|Flanders Campaign]]{{WIA}}
*[[Napoleonic Wars]]
{{tree list/end}}
|unit = [[Royal Artillery]]
}}
[[Lieutenant-general (United Kingdom)|Lieutenant-General]] '''Henry Scrope Shrapnel''' (3 June 1761 – 13 March 1842) was a [[British Army]] officer whose name has entered the [[English language]] as the inventor of the [[shrapnel shell]].

==Biography==

Henry Shrapnel was born at [[Midway Manor]] in [[Bradford-on-Avon]], [[Wiltshire, England]], the ninth child of Zachariah Shrapnel and his wife Lydia. He was commissioned as a [[Royal Artillery]] lieutenant in 1779, serving first in [[Newfoundland]]. He returned to England in 1784, when he began to experiment with hollow cannonballs filled with lead shot that burst in mid-air.<ref name="ODNB">{{cite web |title=Shrapnel, Henry (1761–1842) |author=John Sweetman |work = Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |year=2004 |access-date=2015-08-10 |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/index/25/101025473/ |publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref>

In 1787 he was posted to Gibraltar where he began demonstrations of his anti-personnel weapon which impressed senior officers commanding the fortress.<ref name="Knight2013">{{cite book| last=Knight| first=R. J. B.| title=Britain against Napoleon:The Organization of Victory, 1793-1815| publisher=Allen Lane an imprint of Penguin Books| location=London, England New York| year=2013| isbn=978-1-84614-177-5| page=47}}</ref> From Gibraltar, Shrapnel was sent to the West Indies in 1791.<ref name="ODNB">{{cite web |title=Shrapnel, Henry (1761–1842) |author=John Sweetman |work = Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |year=2004 |access-date=2015-08-10 |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/index/25/101025473/ |publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref> Shrapnel served in [[Flanders]], where he was wounded in 1793. He was promoted to major on 1 November 1803 after eight years as a captain.

In 1803, the British Army adopted a similar but elongated explosive shell which immediately acquired the inventor's name.<ref name="Rich1967">{{cite journal|last1=Rich|first1=Norman M.|title=Shrapnel Wounds|journal=JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association|volume=202|issue=3|year=1967|pages=245|issn=0098-7484|doi=10.1001/jama.1967.03130160119038}}</ref> It has lent the term "shrapnel" to [[Fragmentation (weaponry)|fragmentation]] from artillery shells and fragmentation in general ever since, long after it was replaced by [[high explosive|high-explosive]] rounds. Until the end of [[World War I]], the shells were still manufactured according to his original principles.

After his invention's success in battle at [[Fort Nieuw-Amsterdam]], [[Surinam (Dutch colony)|Surinam]], on 30 April 1804,<ref name="Hogg 1970">{{cite book| last=Hogg| first=Oliver| title=Artillery: its origin, heyday and decline| publisher=C. Hurst| location=London| year=1970| isbn=978-0-900966-43-9| page=180}}</ref> Shrapnel was promoted to lieutenant colonel on 20 July 1804, less than nine months later.

In 1814, the British Government recognized Shrapnel's contribution by awarding him £1,200 (£{{formatnum:{{Inflation|UK|1200|1814|r=-2}}}} in {{inflation/year|UK}}) a year for life.<ref>{{Cite magazine|author=Long, Tony|date=March 2008|title=March 13, 1842: Henry Shrapnel Dies, But His Name Lives On|magazine=[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]]|url=https://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2008/03/dayintech_0313 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080603202930/http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2008/03/dayintech_0313|archive-date=3 June 2008|url-status=live}}</ref> Bureaucracy, however, prevented him from receiving the full benefit of this award.<ref name="ODNB"/> He was appointed to the office of colonel-commandant, Royal Artillery, on 6 March 1827. He rose to the rank of lieutenant general on 10 January 1837.<ref>{{Cite DNB |wstitle= Shrapnel, Henry | volume= 52 |last= Vetch |first= Robert Hamilton |author-link= Robert Hamilton Vetch |pages = 163-165 |short=1}}</ref>

Shrapnel lived at [[Peartree House]], near [[Peartree Green]], [[Southampton]], from about 1835 until his death.<ref>{{cite web|last=Vale|first=Jessica|title=Peartree House|url=http://www.bitterne.net/gentry/peartree.html|work=Lost Houses of Southampton|publisher=bitterne.net|access-date=22 June 2012|year=1980|archive-date=16 March 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140316112831/http://www.bitterne.net/gentry/peartree.html|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Peartree House|url=http://www.plimsoll.org/resources/SCCLibraries/2964.asp|work=Port Cities: Southampton|publisher=plimsoll.org|access-date=22 June 2012|year=1930|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130129111337/http://www.plimsoll.org/resources/SCCLibraries/2964.asp|archive-date=29 January 2013|url-status=usurped}}</ref>

His sister Rachel Shrapnel married the reverend [[Thomas Tregenna Biddulph]]. Gen. [[Michael Biddulph (British Army officer)|Sir Michael Anthony Shrapnel Biddulph]] was his great-nephew.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Burke |first1=Bernard |title=A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain & Ireland |date=1898 |publisher=Harrison & sons |page=113 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YUtNAQAAMAAJ&dq=Michael+Anthony+Shrapnel&pg=PA113 |access-date=8 September 2024 |language=en}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[List of British generals and brigadiers]]
*[[List of English inventors and designers]]
*[[ 1804 in science]]
*[[ DJ Sharpnel]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Portal bar|Biography|United Kingdom|Modern history}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shrapnel, Henry}}
[[Category:1761 births]]
[[Category:1842 deaths]]
[[Category:Military personnel from Wiltshire]]
[[Category:People from Bradford-on-Avon]]
[[Category:British Army lieutenant generals]]
[[Category:Royal Artillery officers]]
[[Category:British Army personnel of the French Revolutionary Wars]]
[[Category:English inventors]]

Henry Shrapnel - Revision history

imported>Wham2001: Changing short description from "British Army officer" to "British Army officer (1761–1842)"