Albert Edward Shepherd VC

b. 11/01/1897 Royston, Barnsley, Yorkshire. d. 23/10/1966 Royston, Barnsley, Yorkshire.

Albert Edward Shepherd (1897-1966) was born at Rowland Street, Senior Lane, Royston, near Barnsley, Yorkshire on 11th January 1897. His father, Noah Shepherd, was born in Dawley, Shropshire and his surname was registered as Ball. He married Laura Darwin at Barnsley in 1896. He was a pump man in a coalmine and the family lived in Brightside Bierlow, Yorkshire. He later became a hewer. Albert’s mother died in 1909 following complications with the birth of his sister, Laura. Albert had five siblings.

Albert was educated at Royston West Riding School. In 1911 he was a pony driver at New Monckton Colliery in Barnsley.

Albert E Shepherd VC

He enlisted in the Army aged just 17, on the day war broke out and joined one of the Kitchener battalions, the 12th (Service) Battalion King’s Royal Rifle Corps and landed at Boulogne on the 21st July 1915. He was promoted to the rank of Lance Corporal on the 28th August 1916, and became Acting Corporal one month later on the 28th September 1916. Shepherd took part in the fighting on The Somme in 1916 and later in the Passchendaele campaign of 1917. At some point he was seriously wounded in the arm and was gassed on two separate occasions and later qualified for a Silver War Badge and an Army Pension.

Prior to the war, Shepherd had been an avid amateur boxer and runner and his running served him in good stead as it was while a company runner that he was awarded the VC.

On the 20th November 1917 at Villers Plouich, when his company was held up by a machine gun at point-blank range, Private Shepherd volunteered to rush the gun and although ordered not to, ran forward and threw a Mills bomb killing two gunners and capturing the gun. The company, continuing its advance, came under heavy fire again, this time firing across the line of advance. When the last officer and NCO had become casualties, Private Shepherd took command of the company, ordered the men to lie down. He then went back some 70 yards to get the help of a tank which was used to give cover to their advance.

After the details of his heroics were published in the London Gazette of the 13th February 1918, Shepherd returned home prior to the presentation of the medal which was due on the 9th March. He had sent a message ahead beforehand asking his father to try and keep news of his return quiet but the news had already got out and he was met at the railway station by a large crowd of well-wishers. The village was decorated with flags and bunting and the Royston Subscription Band led the procession from the train station to the Palace Picture House, where Shepherd was met by the Chairman of the council, the local Vicar and several other dignitaries who presented him with a gold watch and chain and the Primitive Methodist Chapel gave him a bible.

The following day, Barnsley gave the ex-miner an official welcome and Shepherd was carried on the shoulders of a relay of admirers the four miles from Royston to Barnsley. Again the procession was led by the local brass band and finished in Peel Square, where Shepherd was met by the Deputy Mayor on the steps of the Chronicle Building where there were speeches from his former employers, the Army and the local Council. Shepherd was then presented to the large crowds in the square from a window on the upper floor of the building before being carried shoulder high again, through the crowded street.

He was promoted to Lance Corporal on the 28th August 1918 and then to Corporal a month later, and finished his service with the Army on the 2nd January 1919, when he was discharged and he returned home to Royston. He went back to the colliery as a caretaker and on the 17th February 1919, he married Miss Rosezillah Tillman. Sadly, their only child, Mildred, died as an infant. In early 1920 he heard that he had been awarded the French Medaille Militaire, followed a few months later in January 1921, with the news that he had also been awarded the Croix de Guerre.

In June of 1920 he attended the VC Garden Party at Buckingham Palace where recipients of the VC assembled at Wellington Barracks and marched to the Palace via Birdcage Walk, where they were inspected and presented to the King and Queen. Unfortunately Shepherd’s personal life suffered tragedy when Rosezillah Shepherd died in September 1925, but just over a year later on the 6th November 1926, he married for the second time, this time to Gladys Maud Lees, and had by now joined the Corps of Commissionaires. He and Gladys went on to have five children, though two died before the age of 5. Nine years after attending the VC Garden Party he was a guest at the Prince of Wales’ House of Lords’ dinner on 9th November 1929.

Albert became a caretaker at Monckton Colliery offices. In 1929, he attended the funeral of John Crawshaw Raynes VC with ten other Yorkshire VCs. Shepherd retired in 1945 and the following year attended the Victory Parade in London and VC dinner at the Dorchester on the evening. He was a regular attendee at VC & GC Association functions, one of which was the Hyde Park VC Centenary Review in June 1956 and the review of the Corps of Commissionaires in May three years later.

Shepherd passed away at his home at 4, Oakwood Crescent, Royston on the 23rd October 1966, aged 69, and was given a full military funeral at St John the Baptist Church, Royston. The Union Flag was draped across his coffin with the VC and Croix de Guerre medals being laid on top. His cortege as it made its way into the church was given a guard of honour by the Army and members of the Royal British Legion and The Last Post and Reveille were played at his graveside by a Corporal from the Royal Green Jackets. He is commemorated with the Albert Shepherd VC Centre in Royston, with Shepherd Way in Royston, on the war memorial at St John the Baptist Church, Royston and has a VC commemorative stone placed at the Town Hall in Barnsley on 20th November 2017.

In 1968 his second wife, Gladys presented his Victoria Cross, 1914 – 15 Star, British War Medal ( 1914-20 ), Victory Medal ( 1914-19 ), King George VI Coronation Medal ( 1937 ), Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal ( 1953 ), Croix de Guerre ( France ) and Medaille Militaire ( France ) to the Royal Green Jackets at Winchester, where they are still held.

LOCATION OF MEDAL: ROYAL GREEN JACKETS MUSEUM, WINCHESTER, HAMPSHIRE

BURIAL PLACE: ROYSTON CEMETERY, ROYSTON, BARNSLEY, YORKSHIRE.SECTION C.