Alexander William Sheppard (2 June 1913 – 10 June 1997) was an Australian soldier, bookseller, publisher and writer."Obituary: Alex Sheppard MC (1913-1997)", Sydney Morning Herald 14 June 1997 page 126.James Cunningham, "Alex Sheppard", in: Obituaries The Age 16 July 1997 page 36.Robyn Sheppard, "'My heart belongs to Greece,' said Alex Sheppard, a WWII Philhellene", Neos Kosmos, 24 May 2021. Retrieved 30 May 2021. Rising to the rank of Colonel during World War II, he won the Military Cross for his role in the Allied evacuation from Greece in 1941. As a post–1945 rehabilitation officer in Greece he denounced the atrocities of the Greek Civil War and became an "outspoken critic" of British policies and the Greek governments Britain supported.Martyn Brown, Politics of Forgetting: New Zealand-Greek Wartime Relationship, School of History Philosophy Religion and Classics, University of Queensland, 2014 (Ph.D. thesis manuscript), p. 214. Retrieved 6 June 2021. In the 1960s he fought against book censorship in Australia.
Early life and career Alex Sheppard was born in East Melbourne, Victoria, on 2 June 1913. His parents were William John Sheppard, a labourer and later a tool sharpener, and his wife Alicia (née Simmonds), who had formerly been a Salvation Army officer. He lived in the Melbourne suburbs of Collingwood, Fitzroy North where he went to school, and finally East Preston.Colonel A.W. Sheppard interviewed by Ann Turner (sound recording), nla.gov.au. Retrieved 23 September 2020.
He studied commerce and law at the University of Melbourne. While studying he worked a part-time evening job with AWA. After graduating, he worked as a secretary with the Maritime Radio Officers' Union. He represented the union and others as an industrial advocate in the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration.
In his spare time he served as a member of the Australian Army Reserve.
World War II – Greece and Middle East After the declaration of war in September 1939, Sheppard immediately enlisted in the Second Australian Imperial Force and was commissioned as a lieutenant.W. and A. Scarfe, No Taste for Carnage, Seaview Press, 1998, p. 35. In January 1940 his unit departed Australia and disembarked in Palestine. He worked as a Defending Officer reviewing disciplinary cases in which soldiers were accused of impertinence or insubordination, the result of which he became unpopular with certain fellow officers for gaining acquittals where those officers had failed to correctly follow army regulations.W. and A. Scarfe, No Taste for Carnage, Seaview Press, 1998, pp. 42-43. Already a linguist fluent in several languages, he attended classes in modern Greek "as often as he could" at the Berlitz language school in Tel Aviv.W. and A. Scarfe, No Taste for Carnage, Seaview Press, 1998, p. 45.
He took part in the Western Desert campaign and was present during the siege of Tobruk.W. and A. Scarfe, No Taste for Carnage, Seaview Press, 1998, p. 49. He was promoted to Major and was responsible for the welfare of the civilian population in the port town of Derna near Benghazi.W. and A. Scarfe, No Taste for Carnage, Seaview Press, 1998, p. 60.
In March 1941 Sheppard was sent to northern Greece, where his unit's mission was to cover for the retreat of Greek troops facing the imminent German invasion of that country. He worked as a liaison officer, then was in charge of transporting food and supplies by donkey, with the assistance of local Greek porters and resistance fighters, over rough tracks and in mountain areas and "always at risk from attack from... enemy patrols".Tony Cuneen, Doing their bit: barristers in the Second World War, Bar News: The Journal of the NSW Bar Association, Summer 2011-12, p. 82. Retrieved 5 June 2021.W. and A. Scarfe, No Taste for Carnage, Seaview Press, 1998, pp. 76–81.
Returning to Athens, he was ordered to organise and supervise the evacuation of Commonwealth troops from the beach at Porto Rafti (known by the military code name of "Beach D"). In so doing, he succeeded in rescuing of "over 15,000"W. and A. Scarfe, No Taste for Carnage, Seaview Press, 1998, p. 109. troops under cover of darkness over five nightsW. and A. Scarfe, No Taste for Carnage, Seaview Press, 1998, p. 117. "without a hitch"Gavin Long, Greece, Crete and Syria, Canberra: Australian War Memorial, 1952, p. 160. Retrieved 12 May 2021. and "without loss of life".
In Crete he assisted in co-ordinating the partisan groups in harassing the German occupiers, after which he was evacuated to Alexandria, Egypt, by submarine. He was then sent to Baalbek in the Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon where he was appointed Deputy Adjutant General of the 6th Division and acting Deputy Quartermaster General in the 6th Division of the Australian Army.
He was recommended for the award of a Military Cross, with the recommendation commending him for performing two duties in Greece – the moving of supplies on donkeys "even in the presence of enemy patrols" and his organising and controlling the embarkation of "15,000" troops – "with distinction, courage and determination".
World War II – Australia When, following the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Curtin Labor government in Australia decided to bring Australian troops back from the Middle East to the Pacific area, the 6th and 7th Divisions were ordered to return to Australia. Sheppard, now aged 27, was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and sent to the 6th Division Headquarters near Adelaide River, Northern Territory as Acting Assistant Quartermaster General, with orders to help strengthen Darwin's defenses in the wake of recent Japanese attacks there.Bob Alford, "Berry Springs: a war history", in: The Territory Remembers: A Collection of Stories: Honouring our War History, Darwin: Northern Territory Government, 2017, p. 32. Retrieved 6 June 2021, Finding military preparations there in a "shambles", he set about improving signals, supply lines, accommodation and the quality of the frontline troops (with unreliable militia troops being replaced by combat-experienced AIF soldiers).W. and A. Scarfe, No Taste for Carnage, Seaview Press, 1998, pp. 124–127.
After nine months in the Northern Territory, Sheppard was sent to Melbourne to sit on an inquiry "charged with drawing up plans for a Legal Service".W. and A. Scarfe, No Taste for Carnage, Seaview Press, 1998, p. 129. He was promoted to the rank of Colonel. His duties brought him into regular but acrimonious contact with Sir Thomas Blamey, the Commander in Chief of the Australian Military Forces and he hoped for a transfer to the combat frontlines in New Guinea.W. and A. Scarfe, No Taste for Carnage, Seaview Press, 1998, pp. 132–140.
Postwar Greece: Red Cross, UNRRA, British Economic Mission Sheppard had not forgotten his experiences in Greece and the Greek people who had assisted Allied troops at great personal risk. He was "over-joyed" to hear of the liberation of Greece in October but his "optimism ... turned to despair" as he witnessed the British campaign, under Winston Churchill, to crush the Greek republican resistance and reinstall the monarchy.W. and A. Scarfe, No Taste for Carnage, Seaview Press, 1998, p. 141. In April 1945 he accepted an offer to return to Greece as head of a team of volunteers from the Australian Red Cross working for the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) while retaining his position in the Australian Army's Reserve of Army Officers.W. and A. Scarfe, No Taste for Carnage, Seaview Press, 1998, p. 144.
Sheppard was the UNRRA's Officer in Charge of refugee camps at Florina, Kozani and Sidhirokastron. In the first six months, he helped 15,000 refugees, but he found the camps places of "desperation, destitution and horror",W. and A. Scarfe, No Taste for Carnage, Seaview Press, 1998, p. 164. that the UNRRA was only "half tackling the problem of Displaced Persons, with no resettlement or retraining program" in place,A. W. Sheppard, diary (manuscript), 9 January 1946, quoted in: W. and A. Scarfe, No Taste for Carnage, Seaview Press, 1998, p. 159. and that the Royalist government in Athens was pinning a "communist" label on any republican, liberal or democrat refugee and treating them appallingly.W. and A. Scarfe, No Taste for Carnage, Seaview Press, 1998, p. 159.
When his services with the refugees were no longer needed, he was made Officer in Charge of the UNRRA Northern Greece clothing programmes.A. W. Sheppard, An Officer in Greece..., Melbourne, International Bookshop, 1947, p. 3. He distributed food and clothing. Finding that UNRRA food relief supplies were often not being distributed by the government but hoarded in warehouses (in order to increase the government's power over the population by using hunger as a weapon), on one occasion he demonstrated his belief in direct action by "smashing open a warehouse and distributing food to hungry peasants".
He came across the Pavlo Milas Artillery Barracks which was used as a "concentration camp for left-wing political prisoners"W. and A. Scarfe, No Taste for Carnage, Seaview Press, 1998, p. 171. and tried to improve the conditions of the inmates there. He regularly reported his findings to senior British and Greek officials. He came to believe that Greece in that period was becoming a "police state" under martial law.W. and A. Scarfe, No Taste for Carnage, Seaview Press, 1998, p. 174.
In July 1948 he was appointed Director of the Northern Greek Office of the British Economic Mission. His role required him to spend British funds to repair roads and other infrastructure, assist in reviving various Greek industries, and to support orphanages and schools. He also continued to assist political prisoners, attend trials being held under the Emergency Measures Acts recently passed by the Greek government,W. and A. Scarfe, No Taste for Carnage, Seaview Press, 1998, p. 177. and support the activities of trade unionists. All the while he would regularly report abuses to E. H. Peck, the British Consul in Salonika, hoping that Peck would pass that information back to the Foreign Office in London. He was warned by General Clark, the head of the British Economic Mission, not to get "too close" to trades unions.W. and A. Scarfe, No Taste for Carnage, Seaview Press, 1998, p. 184.
Following a plebiscite, King George II was restored to the Greek throne. Mass arrests and executions of both moderate and communist leftists, and village massacres, became more frequent, and the civil war worsened. Sheppard continued to attend trials and visit jails and camps. On one occasion, he intervened to prevent the execution of a fifteen year old schoolgirl, Euphraxia Nicolaides, who had been charged with "giving material comfort to the rebels". For this he was reprimanded for "exceeding his authority" and "interfering in the affairs of a friendly nation".W. and A. Scarfe, No Taste for Carnage, Seaview Press, 1998, pp. 219-221.
During these post-war years in Greece, Sheppard made sure to locate and visit the friends that he had made during the war years to "thank them for everything they had done, not just for him but for other Australian troops" at great risk for themselves and their family members.
Unofficial ambassador for Greek rebels Having lost his position with the British Economic Mission in January 1947 when it shut down its operations in Greece, Sheppard returned to Britain and undertook a series of speaking engagements throughout England and Wales on behalf of the League for Democracy in Greece.W. and A. Scarfe, No Taste for Carnage, Seaview Press, 1998, p. 228.