Name
Samuel Gurney Sheppard (DSO & Bar)
1865
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
21/08/1915
50
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Lieutenant Colonel
Hertfordshire Yeomanry
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Distinguished Service Order
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
GREEN HILL CEMETERY
II. C. 22.
Turkey (including Gallipoli)
Headstone Inscription
O Life Who Dwellest In Earth & Sun, I Have Lived I Praise & Adore Thee
UK & Other Memorials
Christchurch Memorial, Little Heath, Potters Bar, Little Heath & Bentley Heath Memorial, Potters Bar, All Souls Chapel Book of Remembrance, Potters Bar, Hertfordshire Yeomanry Memorial, St Albans Cathedral
Pre War
Born in Walton-on-Thames, 23 March 1865. Son of Samuel Gurney Sheppard and Mary Ann Sheppard, of Herts. Educated at Eton and became a stockbroker.
Served in the Boer War with the Imperial Yeomanry and was Mentioned in Despatches in December 1901: "32nd Company, Imperial Yeomanry, Lieutenant S G Sheppard. On 18th September, headed a party which swam to some islands in the Vaal River held by armed Boers and took them prisoners.
On 19th September, rescued a man from drowning at great personal risk". He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for the first of these actions and invested by the King 24 October 1902. Became a Major in the Hertfordshire Yeomanry 20 December 1905.
He married Eileen Mary Winchester Clowes of Great Offley House, Hitchin, who was 19 years his junior on 27 June 1906. They had four children.
Wartime Service
Went to Egypt as second-in-command of the Hertfordshire Yeomanry 10 September 1914.
Promoted to Temporary Lieutenant-Colonel in January 1915 and left Egypt 14 August for Gallipoli. Landed at Suvla Bay 17 August 1915. Died of wounds 21 August 1915 in the advance on Chocolate Hill.
A letter written by a sergeant in the Hertfordshire Yeomanry stated "Among the first to fall was our gallant leader, Lieutenant Colonel S G Sheppard. He was bravely marching at the head of the regiment, when he was terribly wounded by shrapnel, but as his men reached him he very gallantly sat up to urge them on. His last command: 'Go on, the Herts! Go on, the Herts!' will be remembered by all ranks for all time to come".
Additional Information
His widow, Mrs E Sheppard, Great Offley House, Hitchin, Herts., ordered his headstone inscription: "O Life Who Dwellest In Earth & Sun, I Have Lived I Praise & Adore Thee".
Acknowledgments
Gareth Hughes, Martin Cope, Paul Johnson, Jonty Wild
