William Scurry

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William Charles Scurry MC, DCM (30 October 1895–28 December 1963) was an Australian soldier who during the Gallipoli campaign invented the self-firing rifle.

Scurry was born in Carlton, Melbourne and joined the Australian Imperial Force in 1915. He arrived at Gallipoli just in time for the evacuation in late December. He and a friend, 'Buntie' Lawrence^[1] developed the self-firing rifle which worked simply by having water from one bully beef tin drip into a lower tin. When the water in the lower tin, which was attached to the trigger of the rifle, reached a certain weight, the rifle was fired. This ruse led to the Turkish defenders believing that there were still troops opposing them, even after the soldiers had been evacuated.

Scurry was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal and later the Military Cross. In 1916, when in Petillon, France he was badly wounded when inspecting a new kind of fuse on an unexploded bomb. He was evacuated to England. He lost the sight in one eye. He returned to the front in 1918. On arriving back in Australia in 1919 he became engaged to Doris Barry, an Army nurse, who he married in 1920.

During World War II he served as commandant of the Tatura Internment Camp, then with the rank of Major. He died on 28 December 1963.