13099 Private John Sheppard was born in 1892 or 1893 and enlisted in the Worcestershire Regiment on the 23rd July 1912.
If his army career followed normal patterns of the time, he probably attested for seven years with the colours and five on the reserve and would have been issued with his regimental number at the regimental depot at Worcester.
The Regimental Depot was the administrative heart of the regiment and would have comprised a small permanent strength of around four officers and 60 men drawn from the two regular battalions as well as around 28 NCOs and men who formed the permanent staff of the 5th (Special Reserve) and 6th (Extra Reserve) battalions. There would also have been admin staff as well as Army Medical Corps and Army Service Corps to carry out duties connected with the regimental district.
“The chief work of the depot in peace time,” so stated The Army Book for the British Empire, HMSO in 1893, “is to enlist recruits for the regiment to both the regular and militia battalions, [later Special Reserve and Extra Reserve battalions] and to enter them for training and discipline as soldiers… many a high-spirited lad will resent being ordered about in military fashion when he first joins… it is therefore most desirable that the officers and non-commissioned officers who are to be their first instructors… will set them a good example, give them sound advice [and] cheerfully assist them [my italics] in the work they are called upon to perform in the barrack-rooms…”
After around three months at the depot, John would have been transferred to one of the two home battalions. These postings happened eight times a year and all men posted as part of a detachment would then be enrolled in the same company of the home battalion to continue their training. With eight companies per battalion this ensured that all companies in a battalion had their fair share of new recruits.
A 12-week training programme with the home battalion of 20 hours per week (a combination of gymnastics, marching drill as well as musketry) would then have followed and after between 18 months and two years’ service with the home battalion, John would then have been sent as part of a draft to the overseas battalion. This posting overseas took place annually.
We do not know to which battalion of the Worcestershire Regiment John was sent. The regiment had four battalions with, by 1913, the 1st Battalion stationed in Egypt, the 2nd Battalion in Aldershot, the 3rd Battalion at Tidworth and the 4th Battalion in India. Looking at other service records of the time, it seems possible that he would have served with the 3rd Battalion initially, and possibly been posted to the 4th Battalion in India in November 1913, remaining there until January 1915.
What we do know for sure, because his medal index card tells us so, is that he arrived overseas at Gallipoli on the 25th April 1915. On embarkation in England, The strength of the Battalion was 26 officers and 931 other ranks and we should assume that the majority of these men took part in the landing at Cape Helles.
According to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website, the battalion did not suffer too many casualties during the actual landings. Seven 4th Battalion men are listed with regimental numbers ranging from 6216 (1901) to 12632 (1911). Those lower numbers could have belonged to men who had extended their service to complete 21 years or to men who, having completed their period of reserve service, had opted for a further four years’ reserve service as Section D reservists.
John Sheppard, whose medals I acquired some while back, survived the landings and would go on to serve throughout the war. No service record survives for him but thankfully a single fragment (below) from a list of wounded soldiers does. This shows that he was from Lower Bentley in Worcestershire and that he was wounded on the 22nd November 1917; vital information which I had not noticed before today.
Medal roll records for this man reveal that he served with three battalions of the Worcestershire Regiment, the 4th, 14th and 1st – and it is possible that it was this November 1917 wound which caused him to be discharged as a result of wounds on the 27th June 1918. He may also have been wounded at Gallipoli although the absence of service records makes this pure conjecture at this point in time.
The image at the top of this post is copyright the Essex Regiment Museum and shows the 1st Essex Regiment landing at Cape Helles, Gallipoli on 25th April 1915. The list of wounded soldiers and the War Diary excerpt from the 25th April are Crown Copyright, the National Archives.
For help with your own regimental numbering or military research conundrums, check out my military research service.
25th April has rightly come to be known as Anzac Day and is the focus for national commemoration in Australia and New Zealand. However, there was also plenty of British involvement on that day in 1915 and afterwards, and perhaps no more celebrated involvement than that of the 1st Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers which won, as reported in the Press, "Six VCs before breakfast" during the landing at W Beach on April 25th.
The following men from the 1st Lancashire Fusiliers died on the 25th April 1915, one hundred years ago this coming Saturday.
2597 Private Thomas Addison
1038 Private Charles Alderton
1774 Corporal Edgar Appleton
2304 Private Samuel Arney
2066 Private Edward Aspinall
2415 Private Walter Atkinson
7072 Private John Attwood
1338 Private Thomas Baines
1469 Lance Corporal Thomas Baison
6178 Private Frederick Balme
1063 Private George Luther Banbury
6412 Lance Serjeant Edward Bell
4610 Private John Bellis
1254 Private Thomas Belsey
2200 Private James Bamford Bennett
2383 Private John Birch
1698 Private John Birch
1888 Private Thomas Blackledge
2010 Private Fred Blundell
3234 Private James Boardman
828 Private John Bolas
2237 Private William Richard Bolton
1934 Private Walter Nelson Bone
1307 Private William Arthur Brace
4468 Private John Henry Bradbury
3410 Private Frank Breakey
8978 Private Martin Broderick
2303 Lance Corporal Bertie Bromley
1150 Private Charles Brown
2504 Private William Paul Bryant
6808 Private James Ulick Burke
1426 Private Samuel Callcutt
4182 Private Benjamin Cameron
1873 Private John Campbell
9032 Private Thomas William Carpenter
373 Private Alfred Carrington
1086 Private Reginald Carter
1190 Private Robert Sidney Cast
2008 Private William Henry Catharell
380 Corporal James Cawley
Second Lieutenant Ellis Clark
2037 Private Connorton
2038 Private Albert Cooper
2590 Private Philip Cooper
842 Private Thomas Corley
2000 Private William Cummings
1287 Lance Corporal John Dawtrey
1299 Private Joseph Doyle
2689 Private Francis Duffy
396 Corporal Samuel Dunderdale
2034 Private Sidney Dunham
1501 Private Frederick Eatwell
1746 Private Thomas Edwards
1937 Private Walter James Edwards
2194 Private James Elliott
924 Private Charles William Ellis
2260 Private Joseph Ellis
6263 Private Thomas Ellis
2407 Private James Faulkner
1808 Private John Fielding
1531 Private George Fry
6497 Serjeant James Geraghty
2612 Private Sidney Archibald Graddage
1635 Private William Alfred Greaves
1579 Private Ellis Greenwood
1680 Private Edward Arthur Herbert Griffiths
2463 Private Charles Groves
1597 Private James Henry Hancock
2708 Private John Thomas Hanson
1342 Private William Harrington
4879 Private Harrison
1512 Private William Harrison
2243 Private Herbert Haynes
4718 Private Ralph Hill
1166 Private Albert Holloway
1657 Private George Holt
5667 Private Arthur Horner
1427 Private Edward Houghton
1790 Private John Howarth
1517 Private Archibald John Howe
404 Serjeant John Hughes
3329 Private John Jarvis
1149 Private Hugh Jones
2563 Private George William Keates
1384 Private Frank Kelly
7253 Private David Kingswell
2349 Private Harry Knight
2098 Lance Corporal Edward Lawrence
6781 Private George Robert Lee
2715 Private Patrick Lennard
841 Lance Corporal Joseph Lomax
1616 Private Frank Lonsdale
1926 Corporal John Malone
1273 Private William Mann
1884 Private George John Mansfield
2290 Private Guy Carrington Marriott
1239 Private Frank Henry Marsham
Captain Thomas Bowyer-Lane Maunsell
2040 Private Robert John Mellish
1511 Corporal William Frederick Mercer
2527 Private William John Miller
1676 Serjeant Charles Mills
6822 Private William Moss
1487 Serjeant Arthur Henry Muir
1244 Private William Mccarthy
6063 Private Michael Mccormick
7329 Serjeant James Mcfadden
1627 Private John Mcguire
1833 Private Robert Mcloughlin
6058 Private Thomas Patrick Mcnamara
933 Private William Robert Neill
1889 Private John Norris
6616 Private Harry OBrien
1041 Private Hugh Patrick ONeill
1942 Private Maurice ORourke
4658 Private John Ogden
1720 Private Sidney Orders
1671 Private Edwin Orme
1396 Private Sidney Pavitt
1451 Lance Corporal George Pearce
2656 Lance Corporal John Trethowen Pearce
2140 Private William Pennington
Lieutenant Porter
1907 Private Henry Quarrie
1042 Private Arthur Rackley
1375 Private William Raeper
4292 Private Albert Ralph
2377 Lance Corporal Edward Rimmer
717 Serjeant Fred Rothwell
2128 Private James Ryan
2053 Private Frederick Sarginson
1488 Private Ernest Saunders
1446 Private William Savage
5028 Private William Robert Schofield
2164 Private Henry Seddon
2113 Private James Ernest Sheldon
2542 Private Thomas Shepherd
1715 Private John Silvester
9134 Lance Corporal Arthur Simpson
7604 Private John Slade
2291 Private William Slater
2547 Lance Corporal Harry Smith
789 Private Maurice Smith
1584 Lance Corporal Thomas Albert Smith
748 Corporal William Smith
1554 Private Frederick Charles Streatfield
1506 Serjeant Frank Edward Stubbs VC
2136 Private Harold Taylor
1122 Corporal Joseph Taylor
Captain Aubrey Jocelyn Nugent Thomas
2445 Private Charles Thompson
2162 Corporal Norman Thompson
1151 Private Henry John Thornton
1504 Private Tomey
1485 Private Percy Charles Turner
5620 Private Samuel Upton
944 Private Alfred Waldron
3925 Private Thomas Waters
1849 Private George Wickstead
2599 Private Frederick Wilkinson
1138 Lance Corporal John Wilkinson
1660 Private Luke Williams
Second Lieutenant John Stanley Williamson
2054 Private Lewis Alfred Willsher
6493 Private William Wilson
6520 Company Serjeant Major William George Wilson
2516 Private George Robert Wimbles
9500 Corporal Charles Wooldridge
2554 Private William Thomas Wyatt
The 1st Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers was stationed in Karachi when Britain went to war in August 1914. It returned to England in January 1915 and sailed for Gallipoli via Egypt on the 16th March 1915, landing on W Beach on the 25th April.
The regular battalions had issued number 9999 in November 1903 and began a new number series the same month. The regimental numbers in the list above reflect this with a number range of 373 through to 9500.
In theory, all of these numbers could date from between 1903 and 1914. However; there will be men here whose numbers belong to the series that ended in 1903 and there may also be men with numbers in the 2000 to 6000 range who were drafts from the Special and Extra Reserve battalions and who joined these battalions between 1908 and 1914. The absence of 3/ and 4/ prefixes on their numbers however, renders them indistinguishable from their regular battalion colleagues.
Note too that 2008 Private William Henry Catharell has a killed in action date of 11th May 1915 recorded on his medal index card, even though CWGC records him as having died on the 25th April.
I've borrowed the image on this post from the Lancashire Landing website which shows survivors of the 25th April landing at a 50th reunion dinner on 25th April 1965. Helpfully, the veterans have been identified as follows:
Standing, left to right
H Hill
W Ward
2629 John Waine
W Walker
T C Dickson
2489 Reginald Danby
W T Smith
H L Lee
W G Campbell
H R Clark
2153 Sidney A Hall
W Elliott
A J Ginn
2424 Samuel E Knott
2332 Herbert Bradsell
A W Wilson
2075 Frank T Godwin
H Plummer
R Daley
D Miner MM
J Duffy
N Jeffreys MM
Seated, left to right
Harry Cavanagh
T Brain DCM, MM
Major Lionel Bassett Lipscomb Seckham MC
H R Clarke
H Carr
Captain R W Moore (RN)
Col George Edward Tallents DSO
Cdr A M Williams CBE, DSC (RN)
Lt Col John Elisha Grimshaw VC
Cdr H R Wilson OBE, DSC (RN)
Capt Charles Alexander Batham DCM
1841 George W Capon MM
I have added regimental numbers and forenames to the list above and would welcome further input on these 50th anniversary survivors to fully identify those for whom I have no numbers or names.
For help with your own regimental numbering or military research conundrums, check out my military research service.
