LEST WE FORGET
Second Lieutenant Alfred Seymour SHEPHERD DSO MC MID
From Australia serving in the Royal Flying Corps
Service No: Not Assigned
Born: Nowra NSW, 13 April 1893
Enlisted in the Army: 8 September 1915
Unit: 29th Squadron, Royal Flying Corps, operating from Le Hameau, France
Awarded the Mentioned in Despatches (MID)
Awarded the Military Cross (MC), 16 August 1917
Awarded the Companion to the Distinguished Service Order (DSO), 17 September 1917
Died: Air Operations, France, 20 July 1917, Aged 24 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: No further information
Place of Association: Nowra NSW (location of mother’s residence when enlisting)
Remembered: Arras Flying Services Memorial, Arras, Nord Pas de Calais, France
Remembered: Commemorative Roll, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: Nowra Memorial Gates and Sculpture, Nowra NSW
Remembered: Sydney University War Memorial Carillon, Camperdown NSW
MC Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. While on balloon attack he came under heavy fire from a rocket battery. He attacked this battery from a low altitude, silencing it, and dispersing the gunners. He then returned to the attack on a balloon, and fired all his ammunition, and though his machine was badly hit, crossed the line at 100 feet.
DSO Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty on numerous occasions when engaged in combat with hostile aircraft. Though surrounded by enemy machines, he continued to fight for nearly an hour with the utmost gallantry and determination against two hostile formations, finally bringing down one of the enemy out of control. Within a month he brought down seven hostile machines completely out of control.
Second Lieutenant Shepherd is an Australian Air Ace with 10 victories. He resigned from the Australian Army and accepted a Commission in the British Army on 22 October 1916.
On 20 July 1917, Second Lieutenant Shepherd flying Nieuport Scout aircraft B1504 went missing on an outer patrol. Post-war it was established that he had been shot down in aerial combat with German Ace Alfred Niederhoff and fatally wounded, dying as a Prisoner of War on the same day.
References:
Australian War Memorial Commemorative Roll On-Line Records
Commonwealth War Graves Commission On-Line Records
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record B2455, SHEPHERD ALFRED SEYMOUR
National Archives UK RAF Casualty Book1/968 page 100, 256529
Register of War Memorials in New South Wales On-Line
Bibliography:
Garrisson, A.D.J. (Arthur Dean John) (O350) Australian Fighter Aces 1914-1953, Air Power Studies Centre Fairbairn ACT 2600, 1999