Memories of World War I by Robinson Shepard (my grandpa) – page 6: Where Grampa finally gets to France.

After welcoming speeches by dignitaries we marched to, and boarded, one of the peculiar looking British trains. We rode as far as Winchester, where we marched up a steep hill to a British rest camp, “Winnal Downs.” There we had a meal of what the boys called “Oak Leaf Stew,” a very thin and tasteless […]


Memories of World War I by Robinson Shepard (my grandpa) – page 5: Where Grampa’s ship is the only American ship to land in Wales during the War.

Finally the convoy of 23, with the British cruiser “Berwick,” started for Europe. The convoy was faster than the Berwick and several times had to wait for it to catch up. One day we had a submarine scare and the Berwick left (us) to chase the Sub and we never saw the Berwick again. One […]


Memories of World War I by Robinson Shepard (my grandpa) – page 4: Where Grampa heads towards the Front and sees the Halifax fire

NOTE: The most amazing part about reading this part of my Grandpa’s diary is that H (my “James”) and I were in Halifax for our honeymoon – and the historian who was showing us around told us about the fire that destroyed most of Halifax. Little did I know that my grandfather had been a […]


Memories of World War I by Robinson Shepard (my grandpa) – page 3: Where Math wins the day and Grampa joins the Masons

Once in a while, you could get a pass to go to Ayers. There in the basement of the Odd Fellows Hall, were a couple of pool tables. If the soldier, or his father, was an Odd Fellow he could use the tables. By virtue of Father’s being an Odd Fellow I played pool several […]


Memories of World War I by Robinson Shepard (my Grandpa) – page 2

[continuation of my grandfather’s typewritten notes; see previous post for title page and page 1]   Some of the artillery, having been drafting, came by and got sore and they wrote to the Boston Herald and they printed it, that while we enlisted, wedid it to escape the draft, and so we could choose the […]


Memories of World War I – by Robinson Shepard (my grandpa): Where he talks about hearing on the wireless the Carpathia pick up survivors of the Titanic

This is the cover page and page one of the typewritten sheets that I received from my uncle:   Born: August 23, 1896 in Bangor, Maine (his mother’s home) Enlisted in the Signal Corps, May 10, 1917 Landed in Cardiff, Wales on July 31st having left by Troop Train on July 8th or 9th for […]