PEOPLE IN PORTSMOUTH

 

Lives Lived and Lives Lost - Portsmouth and the Great War

ROBERT SHEPHERD
 
Although both Robert Shepherd and his father Henry were born in Portsmouth there are only a few references that link either of them to the town, the main one being the census of 1891.
 
In it the Shepherd family were living at 5 Brunswick Square, close to St. Paul's Church. The head of the houshold, Henry Shepherd was 40 years old and described as a Militia Man, his wife was Anne who had been born at Mallow in Ireland in 1856 and their two children were Alice (b. 1887) and Robert (b. 1890), both born in Portsmouth. The family do not seem to have been in the UK for the 1901 census which suggests that Henry had been posted overseas and taken his family with him.
 
Henry and Anne appear in the 1911 census without their children at 36 Silver Street in Southsea. It's not known what had happened to Alice but Robert had joined the Hampshire Regiment and was in Barracks at King's Hill, Harrismith in South Africa. Robert's Battalion was moved to India a couple of years later but was posted back to Britain at the outbreak of the Great War. In March 1915 they sailed from Avonmouth for Gallipoli via Egypt, landing there on 25th April. Robert was killed there a few weeks later.
 
FURTHER INFORMATION
 
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission list Private R. Shepherd (12820), 2nd Battalion, Hampshire Regiment, died 07/06/1915. Buried in the Lancashire Landing Cemetery, (Grave Ref: B.82.). Son of Henry Shepherd, of 14, St. Paul's Square, Southsea, and the late Anne Shepherd.
 
Robert Shepherd is remembered on the Anglican Cathedral WW1 Memorial Cross and on the Cenotaph. He is not listed in the 'National Roll of the Great War', Section X.
 
Tim Backhouse
October 2014