Major General Henry Shrapnel, 1761 - 1842'The Inventor Of Shrapnel'
 Henry Shrapnel was born at Bradford on
Avon in Wiltshire. At the age of 18 he became a cadet at the Royal Academy in Woolwich, and was commissioned into the Royal
Artillery.
Throughout his life he spent most of his time and money on inventions that were to revolutionise warfare. He was the inventor
of the exploding shell, and it was on his advice that the Navy changed from wooden ships to ironclads.
Instead with filling a shell with gunpowder, relying on the fragmentation of the outer casing to do the damage, he filled a sphere
with musket balls and a charge of gunpowder, ignited by a fuse. This was used to deadly effect against the French in the Napoleonic
Wars often in support of attacks by the 11th, 39th and 54th Regiments.
His invention introduced a new word to the English language, yet today, Henry Shrapnel is largely forgotten. He is commemorated on
a plaque at the Forrester's Arms at Littlehampton. 'General Henry Shrapnel 1761 - 1842, Inventor of the Shrapnel shell, had a
workshop on this site'
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