Charles Herbert Shepherd was born in Yorkshire on 4 April 1846. He was educated at Rugby. He entered the army as an ensign in the 2nd battalion, 9th East Norfolks on 2 May 1865 and served in Japan from 1866 to 68. A photo, inscribed with his name with ‘Japan 1866’, shows him in uniform mounted on a horse. He was Transport Officer in the 2nd Afghan War of 1879-80. He served in the Expedition to Burma in 1887-89 with the 2nd Battalion, including the operations in the Chin Hills for which he was mentioned in despatches and awarded the DSO. He also served with the Chin-Lushai Expeditionary Force in 1889-90.
He was appointed commanding officer of the 2nd Battalion, the Norfolk Regiment in May 1893 for 4 years until 1897. He was then put in command of the 9th Regimental District, based in Norwich from October 1898. He retired in 1902 but was recalled in August 1914 at the age of 68 to serve in the First World War. The 1915 Army List does not show him as commanding any of the nine battalions of the Norfolk Regiment.
He was married to Gertrude Caroline Smith in 1873. They had three children, Richard, born in India c1876, Dorothy born in Norfolk in 1878 and Violet born in Scotland c1884. Colonel C H Shepherd died 2 January 1920 and was buried in Bhowanipore Cemetery, Calcutta. Gertrude died in December 1929 and was buried at Bexhill-on-Sea. In the portrait photo he is wearing the dress tunic of the Norfolk Regiment with rank badges on his shoulder for lieutenant-colonel. There are Britannia badges on his collar and he has the DSO medal, and India Medal 1849-95 (blue and red striped ribbon) which has two clasps; BURMA 1887-9 and CHIN-LUSHAI 1889-90.
1865 Ensign 2 May
1871 Lieutenant 15 Feb
1880 Captain 1 Sep
1883 Major 10 Jan
1893 Lieutenant-Colonel 1 May
Regimental Details | Commanding Officers
