The Diary of a Victorian Military Bandsman, Cultures of Brass Project, The Open University

CULTURES OF BRASS PROJECT

British publishers of military music 1770-1880

The Diary of a Victorian Military Bandsman

William Shepherd

Shepherd declares at the start of his memoir that he was born in Exeter on 19 May 1832. However, he is not apparent in the 1841 or 1851 censuses. The 1861 census is the first to show his presence in the city. The 1861 census took place on 7 April, on which date Shepherd was a few weeks short of his thirtieth birthday. He is named as head of the household, living at 13 King William Terrace in the St Sidwell district of Exeter, and working as a bootmaker. (An Exeter trade directory for 1850, White’s History, Gazeteer, and Directory of Devonshire, lists a ‘Wm Shepherd, Northernhay street’ under Boot and Shoe Makers.) He was married to Elizabeth, also a native of Devon (born in Crediton), who apparently worked with her husband in his bootmaking business. They shared the house with another family engaged in the same trade.

By 1871 the Shepherds had moved along the street to number 16, which they shared with an unmarried aunt, as well as three female lodgers called Hooper who were lacemakers. William was still a bootmaker; Elizabeth was now described as a machinist. The Shepherds are not evident in the 1881 census, but the 1891 census shows them, now in their late fifties, having made another move along the street to number 12, of which they had sole occupancy. The suggestion of improved financial circumstances is supported by the fact that Elizabeth was no longer at work, though William was still working as a bootmaker. It is clear from the censuses that the couple had no children (or at least, none that survived to appear in census data).

Shepherd enlisted in the militia on 6 December 1853, aged twenty-one. His age and occupation (self-employed cordwainer) are corroborated by his enlistment (or attestation) papers (National Archives, London, WO97/3845). From these, it also emerges that he was five feet four inches tall, with a fair but ‘pock pitted’ complexion, hazel eyes and brown hair, as yet unmarried, and living in St Sidwell on Old Tiverton Road. He was appointed Drummer a few months later on 14 July 1854. (Shepherd says 15 July, but his attestation papers give the previous day.)

Shepherd’s memoir concludes with the year 1906. His death date is not known, but it seems likely that he is the William Shepherd who appears in the deaths index for the district of Exeter for April to June 1915.

The memoir is, according to Shepherd’s own claim, ‘all done from memory’, and his recollections are supported by the regimental history, Col. Henry Walrond’s Historical Records of the 1st Devon Militia (London, 1897). (While the chronology makes it possible that Shepherd could have known the book, there are sufficient discrepancies between the two texts for it to seem improbable.) He gives no explicit indication of his motivation for writing his reminiscences beyond mentioning his intention finally to retire from the band, but the vividness with which he recollects his time with the militia and the regimental band, and especially his postings away from Devon, is powerfully indicative of the significance of the experience for him. This should not be surprising – military service was one of very few ways in which working men of that period could travel and broaden their horizons, and might consider themselves, if so inclined, part of a larger endeavour of national importance. If his enthusiasm and his length of service is anything to go by, Shepherd certainly seems to have been so inclined.