William Scurry William Charles Scurry MC , DCM ( 30 October 1895 – 28 December 1963 ) was an Australian soldier who invented the self - firing rifle while serving as a private in the Gallipoli campaign during the First World War . He was decorated for his invention and was later commissioned and served as an officer during the fighting on the Western Front , where he commanded a mortar battery before being wounded in action . In later life he worked as an architectural modeller and orchardist before his war injuries forced him to retire . During the Second World War , he served on home service , as commandant of an internment camp before retiring to civilian life following the end of the war . He died in 1963 . Early life . Scurry was born in Carlton , Melbourne , to William Charles Scurry , an architectural modeller , and his English wife , Bessie Scurry ( née Preston ) . He attended Ascot Vale State School before working for his father ' s firm . As part of the compulsory training scheme he served in the Senior Cadets before progressing on to the Citizens Forces in 1913 where he served as a colour sergeant before being commissioned as a second lieutenant in May 1914 and assigned to the 58th Infantry ( Essendon Rifles ) . First World War . Following the outbreak of the First World War , Scurry relinquished his commission and enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in 1915 as a private . Assigned to the 7th Battalion , he was sent to join the battalion at Gallipoli in November 1915 and was promoted to lance corporal in December . Shortly after his arrival , the Allies decided to evacuate the peninsula and Scurry , along with his friend ' Buntie ' Lawrence 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 . For his invention , Scurry was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal and Mentioned in Despatches . Following the evacuation , after the AIF had returned to Egypt , Scurry was promoted to sergeant and then later , on 20 February 1916 , was again commissioned as a second lieutenant . At this time the AIF underwent a period of expansion and experienced men were needed as cadre for new battalions that were being raised ; subsequently Scurry was transferred to the 58th Battalion and in June , as his battalion was deployed to France where they would serve in the trenches along the Western Front , Scurry was promoted to lieutenant . Shortly after arriving in France , he was placed in command of the 15th Light Trench Mortar Battery on specific request of his brigade commander , Harold Edward Elliott , who had been his battalion commander at Gallipoli , and promoted to temporary captain . For his leadership of this battery , he was later awarded 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 and eventually lost the sight in one eye and his right index finger , however , he continued to serve , taking up a post as an instructor at I Anzac Corps School at Aveluy in June 1917 . He later became the School ' s chief instructor , before returning to the front in 1918 . Later life . Following the armistice , Scurry returned to Australia in 1919 and he became engaged to Doris Barry , an Army nurse he had met while in France . The couple were married in 1920 and later had four children . He returned to his father ' s firm , however , in 1923 as his vision failed he was forced to give up working as an architectural modeller . He subsequently moved to Silvan where he became an orchardist before his injury forced him to give up this work also . During the Second World War , Scurry re - enlisted in the Army on 5 September 1940 and served with the 17th Garrison Battalion with the rank of captain , before later taking up the post of commandant of the Tatura Internment Camp , then with the rank of major . He was discharged on 8 October 1945 and retired to Croydon , where he died on 28 December 1963 of a coronary occlusion . He was later interred at Lilydale cemetery .