Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: Private W. A. Sheppard, King’s Royal Rifle Corps, who died of wounds received in the opening engagements of the Great War on 14 September 1914

1914 Star (10868 Pte. W. A. Sheppard. 2/K.R. Rif. C.); British War and Victory Medals (10868 Pte. W. A. Sheppard. K.R. Rif. C.); Memorial Plaque (William Arthur Sheppard); Memorial Scroll ‘Rifleman William Arthur Sheppard King’s Royal Rifle Corps.’, nearly extremely fine (5) £180-£220

William Arthur Sheppard was born at Ryde, Isle of Wight, in 1894. He enlisted in the King’s Royal Rifle Corps at Gosport and served with the 2nd Battalion in France from 13 August 1914. Disembarked at Le Havre, the Battalion fought at Mons on 23 August 1914, and later conducted a fighting retreat alongside 1st Corps, enduring extreme heat, lack of sleep and increasing pressure from the German Army. Heavily engaged at the First Battle of the Marne from 5-12 September 1914, the Regiment was severely depleted in strength.

Originally reported as wounded and Missing in Action whilst serving with “C” Company on 14 September 1914, Sheppard’s MIC was later annotated ‘presumed dead’. The son of James and Florence Sheppard of 6, Clematis Cottages, Upton Road, Swanmore, Isle of Wight, his name is commemorated upon the La Ferte-sous-Jouarre Memorial, 1 of 3,740 officers and men of the original British Expeditionary Force listed who fell between the end of August and early October 1914, and have no known grave.

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