Nosecap of naval shrapnel shell : Gallipoli

Nosecap from a naval shrapnel shell. The nosecap is made of steel with a brass end, over which there would have been a pointed tip. The exterior has the remains of red and black paint and there is a bullet or shrapnel hole in the side. The interior is natural steel and the tip has a 'plug' of white metal, possibly lead.

This nosecap was collected by members of the Australian War Records Section (AWRS) in January 1919. A small party of AWRS staff, led by Lieutenant William Hopkin James, worked on Gallipoli between December 1918 and March 1919, taking photographs and collecting items for the national collection.

It came from a naval shrapnel shell and may have been fired by HMS Queen Elizabeth. She provided gunfire support to the landings on 25 April 1915 as well as bombardments of Turkish positions and shipping until mid May when she was withdrawn from the area.

Shrapnel shells contained small round shrapnel balls or 'bullets'. Thousands of shrapnel balls could be contained in one shell.

One of the positions heavily shelled by HMS Queen Elizabeth was Battleship Hill, originally called Big 700, its name changed due to the bombardments the area received from the British ships, usually to disrupt Turkish advances or to shell troops sheltering behind the inland slope.

• Nosecap of naval shrapnel shell : Gallipoli