7F2
William Rhodes
Name:………………………………..
Tutor group………..
World War I
Research Project
Research worksheet
Name
Robert and Denis Sheppard
What happened to them in the war?
An Image
Robert Sheppard
Date and place of birth
Robert 1895 Dublin
Denis 1896 Dublin
Regiment
Oxon and Bucks Light Infantry
Battalion
Robert joined the Army as a Bandsman in 1913. He
played brass and string instruments. He was sent to
France with the Expeditionary Force and was killed in
Ypres in November 1914 aged 19 years. He has no
known grave. It is thought that Bandsmen were also used
as stretcher bearers and that it is likely he was killed
doing this.
Denis also joined the Army as a Bandsman in 1914. He
played the clarinet and violin. He earned two shillings a
week. He was based in Southampton until 1916 training
other bandsmen before going to France on active service.
He remained in France until the Armistice and the
occupation of the Rhineland.
Denis Sheppard
Background
What happened afterwards?
Resources used
Robert and Denis Sheppard were two of
the five children of George and Minnie
Sheppard. Robert and Denis would have
been great uncles to William Rhodes.
Ttheir sister Mary Ellen was great
grandmother to William. The family
originally lived in Dublin Ireland because
George was serving in the Regiment in
Ireland. They then moved to a small
village called Brailles, which is near
Banbury in Oxfordshire.
Robert Sheppard is named on the Menin Gate
memorial.
Denis Sheppard was based in Zons (19km from
KOLN) with the Army of occupation. He survived the
war and returned to England in May 1919. He became
a policeman.
Ancestry.co.uk
Commonwealth War Graves
Commission
Family research
Only 66 men remained of the original Oxon and
Bucks light infantry regiment which had left for
France in 1914. 15,878 men had lost their lives.