Have You a Tiger In Your Family?

Rank : Platoon Sergeant Major

Army Number : 4856611

Unit : 5th Bn, 1/5th Bn, Royal 5th Bn, Royal 1st Bn

Biography :

John Sheppard enlisted into 5th Bn The Leicestershire Regiment (TA) on 18.5.1932 at Market Harborough. He had reached the rank of Sergeant by 1939. Served as Platoon Sergeant Major in Norway with 1/5th Battalion in World War Two and was awarded the D.C.M. (L.G. 11.10.1945) for his actions as the Mortar Platoon Commander, at Tretten, Norway, on 23.4.1940. Using a Boyes anti-tank rifle, he was the first man to knock out a German tank in the Second World War. Taken Prisoner of War, he was in camps in Bavaria and Poland until his release in May 1945. After being demobilized in October 1945, he became a Regular soldier and served at The Depot and in 5th R Leicesters (TA), before serving with the 1st Battalion in Hong Kong, 1948-1950. He served in Austria in 1st R Warwicks 1951-54, then on troop ships in the Near East. From 1955-62 he served on secondment in Nigeria, being awarded the Nigerian Independence Medal in 1960 and reaching the rank of WO2 (RQMS). He was a member of the General Committee of The Royal Tigers' Association for nearly 50 years, retiring as Vice-Chairman in 2006. Member (and sometime Vice-President) of the Hindoostan Dinner Club 1969-2009. In Sep 2003 he travelled to Norway where at Asmarka (the most southerly point reached by 1/5th Leicesters in April 1940) he - the only British veteran present - was presented to HM King Harald V at the dedication of the memorial to Norwegian and British soldiers killed there. In July 2005 on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the end of the WW2 he had the honour of lunching with HM The Queen at Buckingham Palace. On 27.9.2014 he was one of two Tigers who unveiled the Regiment's memorial at the National Memorial Arboretum.
He died in Leicester Royal Infirmary on 26.2.2015, aged 99 years.
In retirement he was a stalwart of the local community in his hometown of Rothley. He was a Parish Councillor and Chairman for five years; a member then Chairman then President of the Rothley Branch of The Royal British Legion; and Chairman and later President and Trustee of the Rothley Conservative Club. He was also co-founder of the Allotment Holders' Association, and a Trustee of the Harry Hames Cottage Home Trust. In 2018 a road was named in his honour "Sheppard Way" at the new development Rothley Meadow in Rothley.
His medals were purchased by the Regiment in December 2019.

This page was last edited on 22.12.2019.

Date of Birth : 6.8.1915

Place of Birth : Hertfordshire

Date of Death : 26.2.2015

Place of Death : Leicester

Civil Occupation : Haddon-caxton Type Foundry; Harborough Rubber Company; Herbert Morris, Loughborough

Period of Service : 1932-62

Conflicts : WW2

Places Served : England, Norway, Poland and Germany (as POW), Hong Kong, Austria, Nigeria