HC Deb 14 December 1893 vol 19 cc1363-4
MR. NAPIER (Roxburgh)

I beg to ask the Financial Secretary to the War Office what sum or sums of money, if any (whether by way of annuity or otherwise), has or have been paid as a reward or compensation in respect of an invention adopted into the Services in or about the year 1867 under the name of the "Boxer-Shrapnel Shell"; whether such sums, if any have been paid in respect of that invention by itself or along with any other invention or inventions or improvements; and whether he will give the name of any person to whom such payments, if any, have been made?

THE FINANCIAL SECRETARY TO THE WAR OFFICE (Mr. WOODALL, Hanley)

No sum was paid to any other person than Colonel Boxer as a reward for the Boxer-Shrapnel shell, and the only sum paid to him was paid in 1856–7, when he was granted a reward of £5,000 for improvements in fuses and shells. Colonel Boxer subsequently declined an increase of salary which was offered to him in recognition of the improvements made in ammunition while he was Superintendent of the Royal Laboratory.