Gurney-Sheppard S Lt Col DSO Hertfordshire Yeomanry
LIEUT.-COLONEL SAMUEL GURNEY SHEPPARD, LD.S.O., commanding the Hertfordshire Yeomanry, of Wantage, Berkshire, was the elder son of the late Samuel Gurney Sheppard, of Leggats, Potters Bar, and the Stock Exchange. Born in 1865, he was educated at Eton, where he was a member of the School Volunteer Corps. Soon after leaving Eton he became a member of the Stock Exchange in 1887, and was ultimately senior partner in the firm of Sheppards, Pelly, Price and Pott.
He went to South Africa in 1901 with the 32nd Company of the Imperial Yeomanry and saw service in the Transvaal, Orange Free State, and Cape Colony. In addition to receiving the Queen’s Medal with five clasps, he was mentioned in despatches and awarded the D.S.O. At the end of the war he became an honorary lieutenant in the Army. For some years subsequently he commanded the Enfield and Barnet troop of the Herts Yeomanry.
On the outbreak of the war he volunteered for foreign service, and in January 1915 was gazetted Lieutenant-Colonel of the Herts Yeomanry, with whom he had been in Egypt since the early days of the war.
He died of wounds received in action in the Dardanelles in August 1915.
“Our Colonel’s death,” wrote one of his brother-officers, “will be an irreparable loss to the regiment, as there was no one more beloved by his officers and men; they would all have gone through hell itself for him.”
And another wrote to his widow: “I don’t think it is possible for me, or any one else, to tell you how beloved he was by every one; ourselves and the men did more than worship him.”
Source : The Stock Exchange War Memorial 1914-1918