COUGHED UP SHRAPNEL

Press, Volume C, Issue 29702, 21 December 1961, Page 14

COUGHED UP SHRAPNEL

Somme Veteran Relieved (N.Z. Press Association) DARGAVILLE. Dec. 20. A veteran of the Somme battle this morning coughed out a piece of enemy shrapnel that had been embedded in his head for 43 years and caused him endless headaches. He is Mr H. Haywood, of Lorne street, Dargaville, a retired farmer and now employed in a Dargaville bakehouse. Doctors advised against removal of the shrapnel. Mr Haywood said the piece was one and a half inches long, half an inch thick and weighed half an ounce. He was serving with the 2nd Wellington Regiment during the battle of the Somme in 1918 when the regiment was ordered to go over the top. A German shell landed nearby and the piece of shrapnel pierced his eye and became lodged behind it. Time and movement had worn away much of the roughness from the obstruction, Mr Haywood said. The shrapnel must have worked its way down to his throat. After sneezing, he felt a choking sensation as the piece of shrapnel was caught in his mouth. Kawerau Angler’s Club fishermen caught 40 eels, the heaviest weighing 9'4 lb, in the Tarawera river on a recent eeling night. A junior member previously caught an eel weighing 28141 b. It was 4ft Ilin long and had a girth of 18itt. The purge on eels will mean a greater number of fingerlings released in the river reach maturity.