Shrapnel balls, Gallipoli : Private C H Wellington, 6th Field Ambulance, AIF

Six round lead shrapnel ball of varying diameters, each showing evidence of their casting.

These six shrapnel balls, plus a shell nose-cap (see RELAWM17350) were collected by 3162 Private Cecil Henry Wellington, a draper of Armadale, Victoria, who enlisted on 10 March 1915 at Melbourne, Victoria. He was assigned to the 6th Australian Field Ambulance (6 AFA) and embarked from Melbourne aboard the transport ‘Ajana’ on 26 May 1915. Wellington joined his unit on 30 August in Egypt and landed at Gallipoli on 5 September. Here, 6 AFA relieved the 1st Field Ambulance on ‘a hill near Brighton Beach’ and established Advanced Dressing Posts at Brown’s Dip and Scott’s Point; later others were added at Olive Grove and Wire Gully. All positions were hit by shells on a number of occasions, the position at Brown’s Dip, in the lee of the recently captured Lone Pine position, was especially vulnerable to shelling.

The unit war diary notes the following instances of shelling on 6AFA positions: on 9 October when “a high explosive shell entered Rest Station, Scott’s Point injuring Private Kermy … Fire thought to be drawn by newly arrived adjacent battery. Position changed’; again on 5 November; on 12 November a cricket bomb on Brown’s Dip Casualty Clearing Station killed ‘WJ Johns’; on 21 November, Lance Corporal Davidson was ‘killed at opening of hospital tent’ and two patients wounded at Olive Grove – ‘operating tent and table riddled with shrapnel’; on 23 November ‘two shells fell in front of hospital tent. Kitchens and dug out riddled’; and on 29 November ‘Ambulance badly shelled with shrapnel and high explosive. Hospital tents wrecked. Captain Green killed in operating hut whilst assisting.’

According to the Wellington, these balls were recovered a week or ten days prior to the evacuation (6 AFA evacuated on 12 December). No evidence can be located for artillery hits in December, so it is likely these balls were collected from the hit on 29 November, where shrapnel is specifically mentioned.

After the evacuation from Gallipoli, Private Wellington suffered a short spell of rheumatism, then transferred to France with his unit at the end of March 1916. He was transferred to the 1st Australian General Hospital on 6 January 1917 and promoted to lance corporal on 17 June 1918. He returned to Australia in March 1919.