Tis True :
Henry Shrapnel (June 3, 1761 - March 13, 1842) was a British Army officer and inventor, most famously of the "shrapnel shell".
Henry Shrapnel was born in Wiltshire, England. In 1784, while a lieutenant in the Royal Artillery, he perfected, at his own expense, an invention of what he called "spherical case" ammunition: a hollow cannon ball filled with shot which burst in mid-air.This device was for use as an anti-personnel weapon. When it was finally adopted by the British Army in 1803, it immediately acquired the inventor's name: the shrapnel shell. (It has erroneously lent the term "shrapnel" to fragmentation from artillery shells ever since, long after it was replaced by high explosive rounds.)