| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
Sergeant Shepherd was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal in Mar 1918. His gun-pit was blown in by a shell and he and his detachment were buried and the ammunition on fire. Though wounded in the neck he struggled out and successfully dug out his men. In going to assist his battery commander a shell burst near him, knocking him down and breaking his wrist. He refused to be attended to until he had helped his battery commander to the dressing station.
Richard had already been wounded twice during his service with the Royal Field Artillery. He had arrived in France on 19 Aug 1914. He received the Mons Star, given to those who served in France and Belgium between 5 Aug and midnight on 22/23 Nov 1914. In Jan 1918 his name appeared in the London Gazette as a recipient of the Military Medal and then again in Mar 1918 for his DCM.
Richard was born in 1888 the son of Charles and Emily Ann Shepherd, the family lived in Brougham Row, Beckside, Beverley. Emily died and was buried at St Nicholas, Beverley in Nov 1890 and Richard and his younger brother, Ernest, were baptised together at the same church less than 2 weeks later. Father Charles was a tanner’s labourer and he remained in Brougham Row and then Beckside bringing up his family with the help of housekeeper, Annie Saxby. Richard’s brothers, John, Charles and Ernest all followed worked in the tannery, Ernest died in 1918 whilst serving with the East Yorkshire Regiment.
Richard may already have been in the army, his photograph caption says he had served 9 years including 4 in France. The Medal Roll shows he was with XXVII Brigade in 1914, they were stationed in County Cork prior to the war. In 1925 Richard married Jennie E Allison in Beverley and their daughter Jean Elizabeth was born 5 years later. By 1939 Jennie was a widow living at 204 Willerby Road, Hull. Richard died in Hull in 1939, aged 51.
Includes photograph, information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |