Andrew Shepherd Sr. & Jnr.

Dates:

Andrew Shepherd Sr.: b. Scotland, 1887 d. Revelstoke, 2 March 1936

Andrew Shepherd Jr.: b. 1922 d. 21 September 1927

Cemetery Location:

Andrew Shepherd: Block E, Row 2, Plot 20

Andrew W. Shepherd: Block E, Row 2, Plot 21

Profiles:

Canadian Pacific Railway carman Andrew Shepherd was 49 when he and 15 others died in one of Revelstoke’s most devastating railway accidents.

The incident occurred on 2 March 1936, when a tender (coal-car) broke loose on the steep grade towards Illecillewaet, near the scene of huge snowslides that had caused a derailment at Albert Canyon (34 kms east of Revelstoke). The runaway car mowed down unsuspecting workmen on the tracks, before colliding with the derailed freight engine. Andrew was killed instantly either jumping or being thrown from the cab of the runaway tender; his body was recovered from the river below.

Andrew joined the CPR in June 1912, serving in a munitions factory in the United Kingdom for three years during World War I, and returning to Revelstoke in 1919. He was a Past Noble Grand of Selkirk Lodge No. 26, I.O.O.F., and was District Deputy Grand Master of District No. 13, I.O.O.F. at the time of his death.

Andrew had a wife and two children: Billy and Christine. A third child, Andrew Shepherd Jr., died from polio at the age of five, in 1927.