Pte 22806 George Edward Shepherd

 

By 1901 his parents, with two sons, are living at “Meadowcroft” in Aughton.  His parents are both 30 years old, his father is listed as a cotton dealer, George is 4. They have a visitor (a governess), and two servants. 

 

The 1911 census finds his parents and twin sisters, age 8, at “Lanercost”, in Aughton (this house appears to be 101 Winifred Lane).  His father is a cotton broker/employer; they have a governess, a housemaid, and a cook.

 

George, 14, and James, 15, are pupils at King William’s College, Castletown, Isle of Man.  George attended this school from 1910 until 1912.

 

He enlisted at St George's Hall in Liverpool on 01st September 1914 as Private 15152, 17th (Pals) Bn, King’s Liverpool Regiment.  He had just turned 18 two weeks before, so must have lied about his age in order to serve overseas. His brother James enlisted in the same battalion on the same day, as Private 15099, giving his occupation as cotton apprentice.  It is possible that George also followed his father and elder brother into the cotton trade, as G.F. Shepherd is found on the Liverpool Cotton Association Memorial, but no Shepherd with these initials is found on U.K. servicemen CWGC records, so this is possibly a transcription error.

He was billeted at Prescot Watch Factory from 14^th September 1914, he trained there and also at Knowsley Hall. On 30th April 1915 the 17th Battalion alongside the other three Pals battalions left Liverpool via Prescot Station for further training at Belton Park, Grantham. They remained here until September 1915 when they reached Larkhill Camp on Salisbury Plain. 

 

George shipped to France with his battalion, disembarking at Boulogne on 7th November 1915.

 

At some point he was transferred to the 89th Company, Machine Gun Corps as Private 22806.  

 

The 89th Machine Gun Company joined the 89th Brigade, 30th Division (the same brigade and division as the Pals) on 13th March 1916. They were in action during the Battle of the Somme, capturing Montauban.

 

George was officially killed in action on 12th October 1916 aged 20 years. (There was confusion about his date of death, as his parents must have been notified of a different date).   His body was not recovered from the battlefield, or was not identified; he has no known grave and is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme.  

The Thiepval Memorial, the Memorial to the Missing of the Somme, bears the names of more than 72,000 officers and men of the United Kingdom and South African forces who died in the Somme sector before 20 March 1918 and have no known grave. Over 90% of those commemorated died between July and November 1916.

 

On 01st August 1932 the Prince of Wales and the President of France inaugurated the Thiepval Memorial in Picardy. The inscription reads: “Here are recorded the names of officers and men of the British Armies who fell on the Somme battlefields between July 1915 and March 1918 but to whom the fortune of war denied the known and honoured burial given to their comrades in death.”

His death was reported in the Ormskirk Advertiser on 26th October 1916:

“Private Edward Shepherd, the youngest son of Mr. J. F. Shepherd, formerly of “Lanercost”, Aughton (now of Devon), has been killed in action in France.  He was in his early twenties and joined the King’s Liverpool Regiment soon after the war broke out.”

 

His parents placed a notice in the same edition:

“Killed in action in France on 14th inst., George Edward Shepherd, Machine Gun Co., second and dearly-beloved son of Mr. and Mrs. Shepherd, late of “Lanercost”, Aughton.”

 

And in the Liverpool Echo on the same date:

“October 14, killed in action, aged 20 years, George Edward Shepherd, King’s (Liverpool Regiment), younger son of J. F. and Lily Shepherd, Exmouth, Devon (late of Meadowcroft, Aughton, Lancashire).”

 

George earned his three medals.

 

His parents had by this time moved to Devon, living at “Elmsleigh”, Cyprus Road, Exmouth. His father received George’s Army effects, including a War Gratuity of £8-10s. No pension card has been found.