Thomas Sheppard

Thomas Sheppard (2 October 1876 – 18 February 1945) was a British museum curator and amateur geologist, who founded several museums in Kingston upon Hull and in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. Biography Sheppard was born in South Ferriby, one of ten children of Harvey, schoolmaster and Myra (née Havercroft). His childhood included holidays spent with his uncle who was a collector of antiquities and fossils. He also accompanied William Greenwell on archaeological digs whilst still at school. Thomas was educated to elementary level in Hull. He worked as a railway clerk in Hull for 11 years, during which time he was self-educated, also attending classes in microscopy and preservation of specimens, natural history topics and geology. Sheppard's employment by the railway (North Eastern Railway) gave him free travel on the company's lines, enabling him to visit sites of interest in the East Riding. Sheppard became acquainted with John Robert Mortimer, and in 1900 produced a catalogue of Mortimer's Driffield museum. In 1901 he married Mary Isobel Osborn (b.1877), a son Harvey was born 1902.