Boxer, Major-General Edward Mourrier

SUBJECT AREA: Weapons and armour

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b. February 1822

d. 11 January 1897 Isle of Wight, England

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English Ammunition designer and inventor of the brass, fully obturating cartridge case.

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Commissioned into the Royal Artillery in 1839, Boxer's flair for the technical aspects of gunnery led to his appointment, at the early age of 33, as Superintendent of the Laboratory at the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich. He was able to devote his attention to the design of more effective shells, cartridges and fuses, with his greatest achievement being the invention, in 1866, of the Boxer cartridge, which had a case made of brass and a percussion cap set into the base. The real significance of the cartridge was that for the first time the chamber could be fully sealed, by way of the propellant gases expanding the case against the chamber wall, with the result that effective weapon range and accuracy could be dramatically increased. His achievement was recognized when Parliament voted a special financial grant, and the Boxer cartridge is still in wide use today. Boxer was promoted Colonel in 1868 and retired the following year as an honorary Major-General.

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Principal Honours and Distinctions

FRS 1858.

Bibliography

1855, Treatise on Artillery. Prepared for the Use of the Practical Class, Royal Military Academy, London: Eyre \& Spottiswode.

1858, Diagrams to Illustrate the Service and Management of Heavy Ordnance Referred

to in Treatise on Artillery, London: Eyre \& Spottiswode.

CM