Robert Josiah Shepherd was born in early 1896 in Great Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire the third of ten children born to Josiah Shepherd and Annie Elizabeth Crawley. The children were; Lily, Alice, Robert, Herbert, Frederick, Clara, Annie, Fay, Thomas and Alfred.

Robert’s father Josiah was a Baker by trade and had brought his family to Boxmoor just after Robert’s birth. The family lived at 19 Cowper Road in the Crouchfield area of the village until 1903 when they moved a short distance to Puller Road. By 1911 the family had moved once more, this time around the corner to number 4 Grosvenor Terrace Road.

Robert’s first job after leaving school was with John Dickinson & Co. Limited at Apsley Mills where as a fifteen-year-old he was employed to feed a ‘Ruling Machine’ in the Envelope Department. His two older sisters worked in the same department, Lily as a ‘Black Borderer’ and Alice as a ‘Hand Folder’. These were three of the myriad manual processes involved in paper, card and envelope manufacture at Dickinsons.

Robert was still with Dickinsons on the outbreak of war and remained with his employer until August 1915 when he enlisted. By the Spring of 1915 it had become clear that voluntary recruitment was not going to provide the numbers of men required for the continued prosecution of the expanding war. The Government passed the ‘National Registration Act’ on 15 July 1915 as a step towards stimulating recruitment and precursor to conscription. The planned ‘Group Scheme’ (Derby Scheme) was planned for the following October however, thousands of men were immediately prompted to join the Colours rather than wait to be called up under the scheme. Robert was one of these men.

He joined the 1st Battalion Hertfordshire Regiment and was sent to Bury St Edmunds to undergo basic training before being sent to France in 1916. It is likely that he joined his Battalion at the Front around March and was soon in the trenches.

In July 1916, the 1st Herts fought at the Battle of the Somme and on the 14th July the Battalion were relieved by the 12th Middlesex Regiment before taking over another section of trench from the 16th Rifle Brigade near Festubert. Two days later the Battalion war diary entry records the following: "19-7-16. A party of about 3 Officers and 60 OR's raided the enemy's trenches at 10.40pm. The part of the trench that was raided had been evacuated by the Germans. The party was in the trenches for 10 minutes as arranged but was bombed from the support line. No prisoners were taken. Our casualties on the evening of the raid were 3 Officers wounded, 3 OR's killed, 1 OR missing, 12 OR's wounded."

Following this raid, the 1st Herts spent another five days in the same section of trenches before being relieved and it was there that Robert was killed on Thursday, 20th July 1916.

Robert is commemorated on the John Dickinson & Co. Limited War Memorial in Apsley.

Robert is Remembered with Honour on the Loos Memorial, Pas-de-Calais, France, Panel 135.

He was only 20 years old when he died

Robert was entitled to the British War Medal and the Allied Victory Medal.