Rusty Tobacco Tin Saved Digger's Life

Source from:  nyngan.yourguide.com.au Reko Rennie 27 April 2008 04/29/2008

Constantly under attack from enemy gunfire, artillery driver Walter Rupert Hellyer was one of the few who survived Gallipoli - thanks to his smoking habit. Two generations on, Mr Hellyer's granddaughter, Fiona Clark, holds on to a piece of history, the item that saved her grandfather's life during World War I - a rusty red Craven A tobacco tin. Ms Clark, 45, marched down Swanston Street today with her husband Geoff, proudly wearing her grandfather's medals and carrying a plastic bag containing the tobacco tin. Mr Hellyer, who served in the First Battalion in the Second Division, was carrying the tin on his hip when a piece of shrapnel blew a hole in it the size of a 20-cent piece. Today, the life-saving shrapnel still sits entombed in the tobacco tin. "This was given to me by my dad, from my grandfather when he was in Gallipoli, he was a driver between the front, going back and fourth and was a bit of a moving target," Mrs Clark told The Age. "It was on the side of his hip (at the time) and a bullet came towards him and this shrapnel burst onto the tin. I actually have the piece of shrapnel(inside the tin) that saved his life." Mr Clark said the piece of shrapnel was part of a shell that had disintegrated after being fired. Mrs Clark said the shrapnel resembled "a bit of rock". "And when you think that (the tobacco tin) was with him in Gallipoli, it's a bit nostalgic for me," Ms Clark said. "You can actually get quite choked up about it, it's something I feel quite proud about, of my grandpa and that he's never going to be forgotten and (that's why) I'm going to be marching for him today." Mr Clark said Mr Hellyer lived to the age of 82, thanks to his tobacco tin. Enditem