14 AUGUST 1942, Page 12

DICK SHEPPARD

SIR,—I wonder if Mr. Roberts and Canon Anson are correct with regard to Dick Sheppard's ancestry. I knew him well at Cambridge and also after the war, and once asked him how it was he managed to get to the front so quickly and he replied: " My great-grandfather was one of Napoleon's generals, and when Napoleon fell he fled to England, fell in love with a Miss Sheppard, took her name, and married her. I put these facts before the proper authorities, and so secured an early start for the front." Was Dick romancing or was he telling the truth? Whatever his ancestry, he was unique as a friend and a Christian.—Yours truly, F. S. G. GARDNER-BROWN. The Cottage, Ford, Wiveliscombe.