TOPIC:

EFV, do you think your bullet was a ricochet to be flattened like that?
Rob

Rob, it's possible but I'm not a ballistic expert. Given that someone went through the trouble to mount a gold plate and made it into a brooch I think the chances are that it hit a bone. I do think the man survived as no one would put a rather frivolous text on a bullet that killed a loved one.

Everhard,

This extract from Makins, Surgical Experiences in South Africa 1899-1900 (pp. 84 - 85), notes that it was not uncommon for ricochets to be removed from wounded combatants during the ABW. The accompanying plate shows a selection of deformed Mauser bullets, no 4 (with "cutting flange") most closely resembling your Lee-Metford "I found my billet" example. It is interesting to note that Makins felt unable to retain many of the bullets that he extracted as patients wished to keep them as mementoes.


I append below a series of deformities observed in Mauser bullets, some of which were collected on the field of battle, but all of which were familiar to me in bullets removed from the bodies of patients, except the complete disc shape shown in fig. 29. They correspond with specimens of which I made sketches at the time of removal from the body, but which I had not the heart to retain in view of the natural wish of the patients to keep them as mementoes of their wounds. Slight indentations and deviations from strict symmetry of form of such degree as not seriously to influence the outline and nature of the apertures were very common. Beyond these one of the most frequent primary deformities was that we familiarly spoke of as the 'slipper form' (No. 1, fig. 28). This results from light glancing contact of the tip with a hard body: in it the mantle of the bullet is rarely fractured, and the deformity itself is of slight importance, except in so far as it may influence the direction of the wound track, which acquires a tendency to be curved. The tip of the bullet is slightly flattened and turned up, down, or to one side, according to the point struck. I saw this deformity frequently, both with Lee-Metford and Mauser bullets. Nos. 2, 3, and 4 are more pronounced degrees of the same type of deformity, accompanied by more or less extensive fissuring of the mantle. No. 4 illustrates the turning out of the longitudinally fissured mantle in such a way as to make a cutting flange. I have seen such bullets removed, and the variety is of some importance as materially increasing the cutting capabilities of the bullet, and augmenting its area of destructive action.









This Lee-Metford bullet from Spion Kop is of similar form (type no. 3 in the above figure). Although the inscription does not state that the projectile was removed from tissue, given Makins's observations, I imagine it too could have been kept as a memento of a wound received on the battlefield. It certainly doesn’t have the characteristics of one of the many commercially-mounted souvenirs.



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Neville_C wrote: It is interesting to note that Makins felt unable to retain many of the bullets that he extracted, as patients wished to keep them as mementoes.

Of course, if a patient died, there was no such impediment to stop the surgeon keeping the bullet. This Lee-Metford example was extracted from a mortally wounded British soldier at Mooi River Hospital.

Friendly fire or a Boer with a Lee-Metford?




















British Medical Journal, Vol. 1, No. 2052, April 28, 1900

SOME EXPERIENCES AT THE MILITARY HOSPITAL, MOOI RIVER, NATAL.

By Sir William Stokes, F.R.C.S.L., Surgeon-in-Ordinary to Her Majesty the Queen in Ireland; Consulting Surgeon to the Field Forces, South Africa.

Should Bullets be Extracted?

Among the many operations which are of daily occurrence here, those for the extraction of bullets or their fragments form a large proportion, and I am glad to learn that there is a predominant feeling here in favour of undertaking such operations. There is, as is well known, a wide divergence of opinion on this subject. It has been stated by some authorities of repute that it is unwise and unnecessary to remove a bullet which is not giving rise to pain or other inconvenience or trouble, and that as silver wire sutures or nickel-plated screws which are so often used for fixing together fractured bones give rise to no trouble, therefore bullets may be reguarded as innocuous, and should be left alone. In this opinion I cannot concur. The analogy between bullets, silver-wire sutures, and screws, is apparent, not real. The latter are fixed, whereas bullets and their fragments are movable and liable to reach situations where their presence may be a source of pain or even danger. Quite recently, Colonel Hensman, the Principal Medical Officer of the Maine Hospital Ship, has told me of two cases of bullets lodged in the arm which had not been discovered. One day, while the patients were exercising with dumb bells, the bullets were forced by muscular action from their deep situations to points underneath the skin, where they could be distinctly felt and easily removed. This proves how mobile such bodies may be in the system when affected by muscular action. In these cases they were fortunately found under the skin, but it is quite conceivable that under similar circumstances they might have been forced into some locality from which their removal might have been attended with peril.

But there is another important reason why the extraction of bullets should be undertaken when there are no exceptional contraindications present, and that is the mental quietude, and the freedom from apprehension on the part of the wounded soldier as to future complications and dangers. These advantages are effectually obtained by the removal of the foreign body. This is, in my opinion, in most cases a sufficient reason to justify removal. It is always a pleasing thing to witness the unconcealed delight of our brave soldiers when they are shown the extracted bullet, and I think the accurate knowledge now obtained of its exact locality by the aid of the Roentgen rays removes many of the dangers and difficulties formerly experienced in such operations.



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Private Adam Irving, 1st Volunteer Active Service Company, The Border Regiment

Another pendant-mounted bullet, similar to the Bigland example described at the beginning of this thread, was presented to 7197 Private Adam Irving, 1st Volunteer Active Service Company, Border Regiment. Like Bigland, Irving was from the Windermere district, suggesting that this rather odd custom was peculiar to that neck of the woods.

Irving (inexplicably named "Loughland" or "Louthland" in most newspaper articles) was wounded in the face near Wepener in April 1900 (casualty returns give a date range of 9 – 24 April). He was patched up in South Africa and returned to duty, serving until his company came home on 29 April 1901. Once back in England, he started to suffer from severe bouts of pain, and, on consulting a Windermere doctor, discovered that the bullet was still embedded in his nose. The offending projectile was removed, and Irving’s workmates resolved to have it mounted on a gold shield, presenting it to him in early December 1901.



Penrith Observer, 3rd December 1901

PAINFUL EXPERIENCE OF A PENRITH VOLUNTEER.

Private Adam IRVING Loughland, who was one of the Penrith Volunteers who returned from South Africa at the beginning of the year, has just had a painful reminder of his experiences at the front. He was wounded in action receiving a bullet wound in the nose. After being in hospital for a time the wound healed up. However, since his return he has been troubled with severe pains in his face. Last week he suffered so much that he consulted a doctor at Windermere, where he is at present employed. After a severe examination the doctor extracted a bullet, which Loughland has thus carried in his flesh for over twelve months. Adam’s fellow-workmen intend to get the bullet set in gold, and present it to him as a memento.


Sunderland Daily Echo, 6th December 1901

REMARKABLE GIFT FOR A BORDER VOLUNTEER.

The comrades of Adam IRVING Louthland, a Penrith man, who has lately been employed in the Windermere district, have made him a unique present, which will serve to remind him of the part he took as a member of the first active service company of the Border Regiment in South Africa.
The only engagement in which the Border Volunteers took part was at the relief of Wepener, and there Louthland was wounded in the nose. He went into hospital, and was discharged subsequently as cured. Since his return home last February he has occasionally suffered from the effects of the wound, but it was not until a few days ago that the cause of the pain was definitely ascertained. Louthland then went to a local medical practitioner, and the bullet was extracted from his nose. His comrades have since had the bullet mounted on a gold medal, on which there is a suitable inscription, and have presented the medal to him.



Previously, on their return in May, Irving and 17 other members of the Volunteer Active Service Company had received gold-filled pocket watches from the town & district of Penrith.

Gold-filled [gold] Waltham watches, and oak-framed photographs & illuminated addresses, presented to:

Volunteer Active Service Company, Border Regiment –
7287 Sergeant James SMITH
7180 Corporal [Sergeant] George W. BELL
7202 Lance-Corporal John LAWSON
7178 Private James E. ATKINS
7181 Private John BOAK
7294 Private John BURRELL
7185 Private Daniel DALEY [Daly]
7293 Private Moses DALTON
7187 Private Tom W. DAVIDSON
7193 Private Joseph William HARRISON
7195 Private William HINDSON
7197 Private Adam IRVING
7204 Private Robert MOFFAT
7212 Private William RICHARDSON
7214 Private James SISSON
7222 Private Jarard TAYLOR (absent - in hospital)
7295 Private James WILSON
7227 Private James WRIGHT

Inscribed: "Presented to ________ by the town of Penrith, for services as a Volunteer in the South African War, 1900-1901".

Presentation made on 15 May 1901 by Mr James Scott (Chairman of the District Council), in the Market Hall, Penrith.

Watches supplied by Mr J. Bowman, Middlegate, Penrith.


...

The bulk of the bullets and shrapnel that were kept as a memento after the Boer War do not bear any indication as to the trooper or Burger it belonged to. For the first generations after the war this was not an issue as the object was probably handed down with some family tale attached to it. Sadly, these stories tend to get lost over time.

This Mauser bullet was mounted as a brooch. The gold bands are engraved with “Kimberley Siege” and “1899-1900”. During the siege (as was the case in the Ladysmith and Mafeking sieges) local residents were keen hoarders of any remnants of ordnance lobbed at them by the dastardly Boers. As such it is just as likely that this bullet was just a stray picked up by a local kid and sold to one of the Victorian damsels that crowded the town after the siege, than as an object that was removed from uncle Charly’s buttocks.