Percy Shepherd,

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(8 August 1878 – March 1948) was an eminent British military and civil engineer specialising in docks, waterways, harbour works, and

drainage Drainage is the natural or artificial removal of a surface's water and sub-surface water from an area with excess of water. The internal drainage of most agricultural soils is good enough to prevent severe waterlogging (anaerobic conditio ...

Early career

Percy Shepherd was born in Romford, Essex on 8 August 1878 but was brought up in the north of England. He attended school at The College, Buxton, Derbyshire from 1891 to 1894, and on leaving school spent a year in the millwright's department of

Armstrong Whitworth Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Co Ltd was a major British manufacturing company of the early years of the 20th century. With headquarters in Elswick, Newcastle upon Tyne, Armstrong Whitworth built armaments, ships, locomotives, automobiles an ...

& Co. of Manchester. He then served a four-year pupilage with Berkeley Deane Wise, Chief Engineer to the Belfast and Northern Counties Railway, in

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingd ...

from 1895 until 1899. During his pupilage he was engaged in work for the Belfast and Northern Counties Railway, including the re-arrangement of York Street Station and the erection of the new railway hotel, the Northern Counties Hotel. Then he worked for ten years as an assistant to W.B. Worthington on the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway, before setting up in independent practice in Manchester around 1909 when he around 31 years old.

Military career

On the outbreak of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fig ...

he joined the coastal defence company

Kent Fortress Royal Engineers The Kent Fortress Royal Engineers (KFRE) was a volunteer Territorial unit of the British Army that saw service in both World Wars. They are notable for their successful actions in May 1940, when they destroyed substantial oil stocks and installat ...

as a 2nd Lieutenant. After training, he transferred to the Inland Waterways and Docks company of the Royal Engineers and spent his war years in waterways, docks and harbour works, being promoted through the ranks to Major in 1918. By the end of the war he had been given command of the construction of the National Shipyard at Portbury on the

Avon Avon may refer to: * River Avon (disambiguation), several rivers Organisations *Avon Buses, a bus operating company in Wirral, England *Avon Coachworks, a car body builder established in 1919 at Warwick, England, relaunched in 1922, following ...

. He was made an

Officer of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(OBE) in 1920 for services to National Shipyards.

Post-military career

He was retained on Government service after the war, when he was sent to Danzig as technical adviser to the High Commissioner who had charge of the apportionment between Danzig and Poland of former German and Prussian property. On his return from Danzig he spent a year with the Office of Works in London before being offered the position of chief engineer to the newly established Northern Ireland Ministry of Finance. Shepherd was appointed as Director of the Board of Works for the Government of Northern Ireland. Two of his most outstanding projects were the Bann drainage Scheme carried out in the 1930s and the

Lough Erne Lough Erne ( , ) is the name of two connected lakes in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. It is the second-biggest lake system in Northern Ireland and Ulster, and the fourth biggest in Ireland. The lakes are widened sections of the River Erne, ...

drainage scheme carried out in the 1950s. Shepherd formed the

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label=Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. North ...

association of the

Institution of Civil Engineers The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) is an independent professional association for civil engineers and a charitable body in the United Kingdom. Based in London, ICE has over 92,000 members, of whom three-quarters are located in the UK, whi ...

in 1934 and became its first Chairman.

Personal life

Percy lived with his wife in Bangor,

in a house built in 1924 and designed by RI Smith and T. F. O. Rippingham, which was controversially demolished in 2008. He had one son, Lambert Charles Shepherd, who attended

Shrewsbury School Shrewsbury School is a public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 13 –18) in Shrewsbury. Founded in 1552 by Edward VI by Royal Charter, it was originally a boarding school for boys; girls have been admitted into th ...

and

Jesus College, Cambridge Jesus College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college's full name is The College of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint John the Evangelist and the glorious Virgin Saint Radegund, near Cambridge. Its common name comes f ...

, and won the

Ladies' Challenge Plate The Ladies' Challenge Plate is one of the events at Henley Royal Regatta on the River Thames at Henley-on-Thames in England. Crews of men's eight-oared boats below the standard of the Grand Challenge Cup can enter, although international standar ...

Henley Royal Regatta Henley Royal Regatta (or Henley Regatta, its original name pre-dating Royal patronage) is a rowing event held annually on the River Thames by the town of Henley-on-Thames, England. It was established on 26 March 1839. It differs from the thr ...

, but who unfortunately was killed in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

while serving in the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by Kingdom of England, English and Kingdom of Scotland, Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were foug ...

on . Percy Shepherd established a scholarship at Jesus College in memory of his son.

Further information

* Institution of Civil Engineers Northern Ireland "Notice" Issue 10 Spring 2009 * The British Army in the Great War

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shepherd, Percy Edward Officers of the Order of the British Empire Royal Engineers officers English civil engineers 1878 births 1948 deaths