Donald Sheppard, a British veteran of World War II who landed on the beaches of Normandy during D-Day, helped liberate the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp and then spent his old age striving to keep the memory of his fellow soldiers’ sacrifices alive, died on Saturday in Basildon, Essex, England. He was 104.
His son, Jonathan, confirmed the death, at Basildon University Hospital.
Mr. Sheppard was one of more than 150,000 soldiers who crossed the English Channel on June 6, 1944. He landed at Juno Beach, in Normandy, under a hail of gunfire. More than 4,000 Allied troops died that day.
“When he landed on the beach, he said he was just walking over dead bodies,” his son said. “Dead boys, dead men. And they gave their life for our freedom. I think to him, personally, he never wants that to be forgotten.”
After his retirement, Mr. Sheppard devoted himself to keeping alive the memory of the soldiers who fought and died beside him. He raised money for veterans, made repeated trips to Normandy and, until recently, spoke to schoolchildren about the war.
“He always talked about the men — the boys, really — that didn’t come back,” his son said, adding, “He just felt so passionate about never forgetting.”
In 1945, Mr. Sheppard helped British forces liberate Bergen-Belsen, one of the largest concentration camps in Germany; more than 50,000 people, including Anne Frank, died there. When the British arrived, corpses lay in piles; about 60,000 people, emaciated and ill, were still alive.
Mr. Sheppard struggled to talk about the experience; a granddaughter, Daisy O’Brien, said she did not learn about it until she was a teenager. Mr. Sheppard would become emotional remembering that day, his son said.
“He couldn’t believe that one human could do that to another human,” Jonathan Sheppard said, and would often lament the “senselessness” of war.
Mr. Sheppard’s wife, Sandra Sheppard, said in an interview that Mr. Sheppard would often say: “Why are there still wars? Why?”
Donald Sheppard, who went by Don, was born on May 4, 1920, in Essex, a county east of London, to Daisy and Edgar Sheppard. His mother worked at a hotel, his father on the London docks. He had a sister, Lilian Sheppard, who died in 1993.
Before the Normandy invasion, he served in North Africa and Sicily, his family said.
Mr. Sheppard lived in Basildon for 50 years and drove oil tankers for a living.
He was awarded a local honor, the Freedom of the Borough, in 2019. On his death, flags in the town flew at half-mast.
“His life was a shining example of duty, resilience and quiet heroism,” Gavin Callaghan, the leader of the Basildon Council, said in a statement posted to Facebook.
In addition to his wife; his son, Jonathan; and his granddaughter Daisy, Mr. Sheppard is survived by two daughters, Joanna O’Brien and Jacqui Scott; five other grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren. He and his wife would have been married 57 years on Monday.
Days before Mr. Sheppard died, local residents visited him at the hospital just to shake his hand. Some thanked him for his service and sacrifice. One doctor asked him what his secret to a long life was.
“Wine, whiskey and salt,” he had said, according to Daisy O’Brien. “That’s what I swear by.”
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