Draft:Lynn David Shepherd

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Lynn David Shepherd (November 30, 1795 - August 15, 1845) was an English-born Australian mariner, farmer and soldier, who served in the British army in the battle of Waterloo against the Napoleon.

Biography[edit]

Lynn Shepherd was born in 1795, in Daybrook, Nottinghamshire, England. He was the only child of his parents, Charles and Mary Shepherd, who were farmers and peasants. The family was poor.

Shepherd joined the British Military in 1815, at age 16. Napoleon raised an army of 120.000 men, after being in exile, Britain is forced to bolster its army, many of the recruited were from the working class youth, These men became the Infantry of the final Battle against Napolean's army, Because of their lack of experience, they were mostly reduced to cannon fodder, Lynn Shepherd is transported off to Europe to fight, in the Battle of Quatre Bras, Wallonia Belgium His Regiment was the 69th Regiment in South Lincolnshire, and earned a badge of bravery and integrity.

The Battle of Quatre Bras was fought on 16 June 1815, as a preliminary engagement to the decisive Battle of Waterloo, in the 69th Regiment. Lynn Shepherd was injured 7 times by bayonet, the day before Waterloo.

Shepherd married Elisabeth Mariner in 1817 in Arnold, Nottingham. The two later joined The New South Wales Veterans Corp and came to Australia as free settlers. They arrived in Australia on September 16 1826, on the ship The Orpheus. To help them build a new life, the British Government promised them healthy pay packets, Rations and Land. Shepherd was given 80 acres of land and became a farmer in Bong Bong, New South Wales in 1830, which he dubbed Harby Farm. He was a soldier, mariner on the boat, farmer and policeman The couple had seven children: Mary, Charles, John, Lynn, James, Sarah and William. Later, he wrote a book titled: Wellington's Men Remembered Volume 2: A Register of Memorials to Soldiers who Fought in the Peninsular War and at Waterloo.

In 1838, Shepherd was falsely charged with highway robbery,and sentenced to life at Norfolk Island. After much correspondence, and maintaining his innocence, the man who actually committed the crime, William Lee, admitted that Shepherd was entirely innocent, and he was released in 1841. Lynn Shepherd died in Murray Flats at age 49 on August 15,1845. His wife was buried with him at Mangarlowe Cemetery in 1872.