SOLDIER KILLED BY GRENADE

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24895, 7 June 1946, Page 6

SOLDIER KILLED BY GRENADE

ANOTHER SERIOUSLY INJURED

ACCIDENT AT PRACTICE . RANGE (P.A.) AUCKLAND, June 6. One soldier was killed and another wa. seriously injured when a hand grenade exploded in the trench in which they were standing at the Ardmore rifle range this afternoon. They were: .

Killed Trooper Albert Henry Thomas Draper, • aged 22, single, the second son of Mr and Mrs R. Draper, of Zealandia street, Whangarei. Injured Corporal George Anderson, aged 20, single, a son of Mr and Mrs Joseph Anderson, of Pukehina, Te Puke. A partv of men from J Force, of which Draper and Anderson were members, was at the rifle range during the afternoon for hand grenade practice, and the two men were in the priming bay or trench. - A grenade thrown from the throwing bay nearby, accidentally landed in the priming bay and exploded near the two men. Two military doctors from Papakura military camp attended the injured soldiers, but Draper died from his injuries while he was being taken to the camp hospital, which was about four miles from the scene of the accident.

Corporal Anderson, Who was injured in the arms, back, and right foot, was taken to the camp hospital, and later removed to the Auckland Hospital.