Arthur Cyril Sheppard was the son of Arthur and Fanny Emma Sheppard (née Winfield).
His father Arthur was born in about 1856 in Mansfield Woodhouse and his mother Fanny was born in 1861 in Lenton, Nottingham. They were married at Mansfield Woodhouse St Edmund King & Martyr in November 1877 and had eight children, one of whom died before 1911. Their first five children were born in Mansfield Woodhouse:
William Arthur b. 1880, Lily Maria b. 1882, Charles Lester Albert b. 1883 d. 1905, Hetty b. 1886 and Arthur Cyril birth registered 1890 (JFM); with the exception of Arthur Cyril who was baptised at East Stoke St Oswald in July 1892 the other children were baptised at Mansfield St Edmund. The sixth child, Fanny May, was born in East Stoke in 1892 and baptised on the same date as her brother Arthur Cyril. John Winfield was born in 1894 in Radcliffe on Trent and the youngest child Nellie Elizabeth was born in Southwell in 1896 and baptised with her brother John at Southwell Minster the same year.
In 1891 Arthur, a groom (domestic), and Fanny were living on Station Road, Mansfield Woodhouse, with their first child, William. They and their five children, William, Lily, Charles, Hetty and Arthur, had moved to East Stoke, Nottinghamshire, by 1891 where Arthur snr. now worked as a groom and gardener. Fanny was born in East Stoke the following year but the family was living in Radcliffe on Trent by the time the seventh child was born in 1894 and in Southwell by 1896 when the youngest was born.
By 1901 Arthur and Fanny were living in Jenkin's House, Kirklington Road, Southwell. Six of their eight children were in the home on the night of the census: Charles a gardener's boy, Hetty a lace worker, Arthur, Fanny, John and Nellie. The eldest son, William, has not yet been traced on the 1901 census but Lily, a leather worker, was a boarder in Mansfield in the home of another leather worker. Charles, the second son, died four years later in 1905, aged 20.
Arthur, now working as a jobbing gardener, and Fanny had moved to Waterloo House, Southwell, by 1911. Only Arthur Cyril and Fanny were still living with their parents; both were lace factory hands. Hetty had married Charles Cave in 1907 and they were living on Westgate, Southwell. The other four surviving children have not yet been traced on the 1911 Census.
Arthur snr. completed a form for the army in 1919 listing his late son's surviving blood relatives. These were his parents, Arthur and Fanny, who were still living at Waterloo House, two brothers and three sisters. William was living in Burton on Trent (m. Agnes Emily Cowan, 1904) and John Winfield was living in Didsbury, near Manchester. One of the sisters was Fanny (Taylor) who had married Edgar Taylor in 1916 and was living in Thurgarton, Nottinghamshire. The details of the two other married sisters were largely illegible but may have been Hetty Cave (age 31) who was living in Easthorpe, Southwell, and Mrs Cooper (age ?22) of North Gate, Newark, who may have been Nellie Elizabeth.