1. David Stuart Sheppard, Baron Sheppard of Liverpool was a Church of England bishop who played cricket for Sussex and England in his youth, before serving as Bishop of Liverpool from 1975 to 1997.
32 Facts About David Sheppard
1. 2.
David Sheppard was born in Reigate and brought up in Charlwood, Surrey.
3.
David Sheppard's father was a solicitor, and a cousin of Tubby Clayton, founder of Toc H; his mother was the daughter of the artist and illustrator, William James Affleck Shepherd.
4.
David Sheppard's family moved to Sussex after his father died in the late 1930s.
5.
David Sheppard was educated at Northcliffe House School in Bognor Regis and then at Sherborne School, Dorset, where his cricketing talent first emerged.
6.
David Sheppard played cricket for Cambridge University, Sussex and England.
7.
David Sheppard made his Test debut against West Indies in August 1950, having scored heavily for Cambridge against the tourists earlier that summer.
8.
David Sheppard's career total for Cambridge University, 3,545, was a record.
9.
David Sheppard hit 1,000 runs in a season six times, reaching 2,000 three times.
10.
David Sheppard hit three double centuries, one for Sussex and two for Cambridge University.
11.
David Sheppard reached his highest Test score, 119, against India at the Oval in 1952.
12.
Sussex were the runners-up in the County Championship in 1953, and David Sheppard was one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year that year.
13.
David Sheppard was already progressing his clerical career and declined to tour unless required as a captain.
14.
David Sheppard was a staunch opponent of apartheid in South Africa, and one of many signatories in a letter to The Times on 17 July 1958 opposing 'the policy of apartheid' in international sport and defending 'the principle of racial equality which is embodied in the Declaration of the Olympic Games'.
15.
David Sheppard made 112 for the Gentlemen and was chosen for the tour, but Ted Dexter was confirmed as captain for the remainder of the home series and the forthcoming tour of Australia.
16.
David Sheppard ran out his captain Ted Dexter, took a risky single for the winning run and was run out by Bill Lawry so that Ken Barrington had to come out to see Colin Cowdrey make the winning single.
17.
David Sheppard played his last Tests against New Zealand in early 1963.
18.
David Sheppard was converted to evangelical Christianity whilst at Cambridge, influenced by Donald Grey Barnhouse, and trained for the ministry at Ridley Hall, Cambridge from 1953 to 1955, where he attended the lectures of Owen Chadwick and Maurice Wiles, and was much impressed by a visiting lecturer, Donald Soper.
19.
David Sheppard was ordained in 1955, serving his title as curate at St Mary's Church, Islington, but continued to play Test cricket sporadically until 1963, being the first ordained minister to do so.
20.
David Sheppard became Bishop of Woolwich in 1969, and Bishop of Liverpool in 1975.
21.
David Sheppard was an active broadcaster and campaigner, especially on the subjects of poverty and social reform in the inner cities, and opposition to apartheid and the tour to England by the South African cricket team scheduled to take place in 1970.
22.
David Sheppard worked closely with the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Liverpool, Derek Worlock, on these issues, and was often an outspoken critic of Margaret Thatcher's government.
23.
David Sheppard worked with other church leaders in Liverpool, including the Methodist chairman John Newton.
24.
David Sheppard gave the Dimbleby Lecture in 1984, on "The Other Britain".
25.
David Sheppard was national president of Family Service Units from 1987 and chaired the religious advisory committee for the BBC and IBA from 1989 to 1993.
26.
David Sheppard retired in 1997, and in the 1998 New Year Honours was elevated to a life peerage, taking the title Baron David Sheppard of Liverpool, of West Kirby in the County of Merseyside.
27.
David Sheppard sat in the House of Lords on the Labour benches.
28.
David Sheppard wrote several books: Built As a City in 1974 about urban mission, Bias to the Poor in 1983, and two autobiographies, Parson's Pitch in 1964 and Steps Along Hope Street in 2002.
29.
In 1957 David Sheppard married Grace Isaac, a daughter of a clergyman, whom he had met at Cambridge.
30.
In December 2003, David Sheppard announced that he had been suffering from colorectal cancer for the previous two years.
31.
David Sheppard died on 5 March 2005, the day before what would have been his 76th birthday.
32.
Lady David Sheppard died of cancer on 10 November 2010, aged 75.