SHEPARD, Arthur Edward

Arthur was born 1895 in Newport to Edward James & Alice Louisa (nee BURT) who were living at 18 New Street in Newport around the time of Arthur’s death.

Arthur, aged 23, died of dysentery on the 4th of July 1918 & is buried in the Dar Es Salaam (Upanga Road) Cemetery in Tanzania alongside 235 of his comrades, beneath a Commission Headstone

At the outbreak of the First World War Tanzania was the core of German East Africa. From the invasion of April 1915, Commonwealth forces fought a protracted & difficult campaign against a relatively small but highly skilled German force under the command of General von Lettow-Vorbeck. When the Germans finally surrendered on the 23rd of November 1918, 12 days after the European armistice, their numbers had been reduced to 155 European & 1,168 African troops.

Arthur is also remembered on the County & Newport Borough War Memorials.