Andrew Sheppy

[Rob R]

Andrew Sheppy

It is with heavy hearts we share the sad news of our friend and mentor Andrew Sheppy’s passing.

Andrew was one of RBST’s founding fathers and served as a trustee for many years helping shape and direct RBST’s work and mission. Although his more recent work with RBST has focused on poultry, he was a passionate Dexter breeder, one of the original founders of the Oxford Sandy and Black Pig Society. He also bred Hebrideans and Soays for many years, carrying out important genetic work with these and other sheep breeds in 1970’s.

Poultry was his biggest passion and he was founder of The Cobthorn Trust, which has a world-renowned collection of poultry, domestic species and pheasants. He was also an honorary lecturer at Bristol Vet College, winner of the Marsh Christian Trust Award for Conservation Genetic Bio-Diversity and founder and current President of the Rare Poultry Society.

Everyone at RBST will miss him greatly and all our thoughts are his family and close friends at this difficult time.

[LISA]

That is very sad news.

I only know Andrew through Dexters. He was supremely intelligent and very interesting to debate with (especially any controversial subject!). He was a decent, knowledgeable, and fair Judge and would put the best animal top even if it was not his "type". His Cobthorn Herd of Dexters were well respected cattle and bloodlines. Above all I remember Andrew for his sense of Humour and can imagine his hearty laugh as I type. He was tremendous good fun at the annual Rare Breeds Sale at Stoneleigh - happy days.

Very Best thoughts to Andrew and his friends and family.

[moomin]

The tears are flowing as I write this.
What can one say when one has lost a good friend of 40 years?
I only spoke to him last week and he sent me pictures of his lovely cow family.
Andrew and I joined the DCS in 1976. We first got to know one another well on a train journey home from an AGM in Carlisle. Our discussion centred around genetics and inbreeding - what else would we talk about? I nearly missed my stop!
I have many more anecdotes I could tell you about but not yet.
Some criticised Andrew because he had no formal qualifications, he didn't need a bit of paper to say he had passed examinations and to say how clever he was, he was way and beyond clever.
One of Andrews greatest gifts was that he never spoke badly about anyone, he may have criticised peoples opinions but never criticised the the person themselves. Maybe we should all learn from this?
Goodbye Andrew, loved you to bits.
Di

[Jac]

Sorry to hear of his passing. It would be nice to think that Cobthorn Dolly was there to meet him on the other side.

[SteveM]

Link below to an article from the Chew Valley Gazete this weekend

http://www.chewvalleygazette.co.uk/arti ... hyear=2017