The Sheppard family of Ballarat East

A few months ago we wrote about the Sheppard brothers of Ballarat East, and we were really thrilled to hear from a member of the family, Grace, who remembers both Albert and Charles – Albert was her grandfather.

Grace sent us some photographs of the family to add to this blog and here they are.

The Sheppard family in the garden at Rowe St - George and Mary with their children, Harrie (b.1882), Adeline (1885), Alfred (1887), Charles (1889), Anne (1892), Albert (1894) and Mary (1898). There are 2 more older brothers not in this photograph, Hugh and William. (Worked out from birth records)

 

Two photgraphs of Albert Sheppard, the one above in AIF uniform, the one below I think the uniform of the Royal Australian Engineers, where Albert was serving when war was declared. Will check this with some of our military experts

This one is simply labelled "War postcard"

Grace writes  "My grandfather Albert Sheppard first went to Gallipoli with his brother where he was given a distinguished conduct medal.  He then went to France being wounded in action then returned to Australia in October 1918. He ended up making the army his career.

"His family consisted of William, Hugh, Harry, Adeline, Albert, Charles, Anne and Mary - the parents' names were George and Mary.

"Members of our family have visited the trees planted for the brothers including myself.  I am not sure whether my grandfather visited them though as I was only one when he died in July 1958." 

Thankyou Grace for supplying this extra information about your family.

___

If you have anything to add to any of our blog posts please do get in touch with us at the library, we aim to discover and share information about Ballarat and the Great War, and the people involved.

The Sheppard brothers of Ballarat East

Recently I was helping a couple do some research on their house.  They were so excited and happy about their property, and were seeking some information about the family that built it and lived there for many years.

A usual part of research when we are “hunting up” Ballarat people is to look at a little book called Citizens and Sports which was compiled and printed in 1916, by a gentleman named M.M. McCallum.  This book provides brief biographical details in very abbreviated form, so you have to be up with your acronyms, to understand it.  But it often provides a clue or a key that leads to further information, and it is very valuable to us.

On this day I checked Citizens and Sports, actually looking for the father of the family, but what I found was information on two of the sons, and it astonished me.  Here it is:

Citizens and Sports, Ballarat 1916 p. 93

You can see that the brothers were corporal and sergeant of the same company of Field Engineers, and that they were both at the Gallipoli landings.  They have both received high military honours. How proud the Sheppard family of Rowe Street, Ballarat East, must have been.

The National Archives of Australia holds records about service in the Australian defence forces from Federation in 1901, and the Archives have digitised all the WW1 records.  I haven’t been able to look at the Sheppards’ war records - somehow I don’t want to know their fates.  But here are the links, and I will leave it to you to check for yourself, if you want to …

Albert Sheppard    
 

Charles Sheppard