A DANGEROUS SOUVENIR.

Taihape Daily Times, 5 April 1918, Page 3

A DANGEROUS SOUVENIR.

A shell which had stood on the hearth of the house of Sergeant Morgan, of the K. 0.5.8., at Tweedmouth, for sixteen years, exploded with -tremendous violence last month, blowing out the windows of the house and injuring three of the Sergeant’s children. The shell was brought back from South Africa by a comrade in his regiment and given to the sergeant as a souvenir. It was naturally supposed that the charge had been drawn. The children were alone in the house when the explosion occurred. Willie, aged twelve, who was nearest the fire, was severely injured and taken to the infirmary. The father is serving in France, and their mother had left them a few minutes previously to do her week’s mangling. It is supposed that some burning soot, falling from the fire, penetrated the fuse opening at the nose of the shell.