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David Stuart Sheppard, Baron Sheppard of Liverpool (6 March 1929 – 5 March 2005) 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. Sheppard remains the only ordained minister to have played Test cricket,
He was educated at Northcliffe House School in Bognor Regis and then at Sherborne School, Dorset, where his cricketing talent first emerged. After National Service as a second lieutenant in the Royal Sussex Regiment, he then went to study history at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, in 1947, and started to play first-class cricket.
He reached his highest Test score, 119, against India at the Oval in 1952.
Sussex were the runners-up in the County Championship in 1953, and Sheppard was one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year that year. In 1954 he captained England in two Tests against Pakistan in the absence of Len Hutton. He won one Test and drew the other, but the series ended in a 1–1 draw. Sheppard was a favourite with the Old Guard at Lord's, who had wanted him to captain the tour of Australia in 1954–55 instead of the Yorkshire professional Hutton, but this came to naught. Sheppard was already progressing his clerical career and declined to tour unless required as a captain. In 1956 he was recalled to play Australia and made 113 in the Fourth Test at Old Trafford, where Jim Laker famously took 19 wickets and England won by an innings.
He 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'.Brown and Hogsbjerg, Apartheid is not a game, 16. He refused to play against the touring South Africans in 1960, refused to watch the touring South Africans in 1965 and was a vocal opponent of the proposed MCC tour in 1968–69 which was ultimately cancelled after the South African government refused to allow Basil D'Oliveira to play. In 1970 he supported the Fair Cricket Campaign against the proposed 1970 tour of England by South African cricket team.Brown and Hogsbjerg, Apartheid is not a game, 68.
Sheppard was willing to take a sabbatical from his church mission in the East End in order to tour Australia in 1962–63. His many friends at Lord's wanted him to captain the Fourth and Fifth Tests against Pakistan in 1962, but Sheppard had not played serious cricket for years. He 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. Sheppard agreed to tour and "the presence in the pulpit of David Sheppard...filled the Anglican cathedral of every state capital from Perth to Brisbane"Swanton, E.W. (1975) Swanton in Australia, with MCC 1946–1975, Fontana. p. 124. . Sheppard made 0 and 113 in the victorious Second Test at Melbourne, but dropped two catches and was dropped himself when he was on a pair in the second innings. He 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. Although he held some good catches on the tour "the ones I dropped were at such vital moments", Richie Benaud and Bill Lawry in the Second Test and Neil Harvey in the Fourth Test off Trueman, who told him "The only time your hands are together are on Sunday".Trueman, Fred (2004) As It Was, The Memoirs of Fred Trueman, Pan Books. p. 282. This is a story that increased with the telling, another version being "Pretend it's Sunday Reverend, and keep your hands together",Freddi, Criss (1996) The Guinness Book of Cricket Blunders, Guinness Publishing. pp. 168–169. or that it was Sheppard who said "Sorry Fred, I should have kept my hands together".Fred Titmus and Hildred, Stafford (2005) My Life in Cricket, John Blake Publishing Ltd. p. 116. One couple in Australia asked Mrs Sheppard if the Reverend could Infant baptism their baby, but she advised them not to as he was bound to drop it.
Sheppard played his last Tests against New Zealand in early 1963.
Sheppard became Bishop of Woolwich (a suffragan bishop in the Diocese of Southwark) in 1969, and Bishop of Liverpool in 1975. When installed as Bishop of Liverpool, he was the youngest diocesan bishop in England. He was an active broadcaster and campaigner, especially on the subjects of poverty and social reform in the inner city, and opposition to apartheid and the tour to England by the South African cricket team scheduled to take place in 1970.
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. The Queen visited both Liverpool cathedrals in 1978 to celebrate the long-delayed completion of the Anglican cathedral, and Pope John Paul II visited both cathedrals during his tour of England in 1982. The bishops worked together in the aftermath of the 1981 Toxteth riots, the 1985 Heysel stadium disaster and the 1989 Hillsborough Stadium disaster. Sheppard also worked with other church leaders in Liverpool, including the Methodist chairman John Newton. He gave the Dimbleby Lecture in 1984, on "The Other Britain". In 1985 he was appointed as a member of the Archbishop of Canterbury's Commission on Urban Priority Areas, culminating in the publishing of the controversial report "Faith in the City". He was national president of Family Service Units from 1987 and chaired the religious advisory committee for the BBC and IBA from 1989 to 1993.
Sheppard retired in 1997, and in the 1998 New Year Honours was elevated to a life peerage, taking the title Baron Sheppard of Liverpool, of West Kirby in the County of Merseyside. He sat in the House of Lords on the Labour benches.
In December 2003, Sheppard announced that he had been suffering from colorectal cancer for the previous two years. He died on 5 March 2005, the day before what would have been his 76th birthday. He was survived by his wife and daughter. After a funeral near his retirement home at West Kirby on the Wirral, his ashes were buried in Liverpool Cathedral, with a memorial service at the cathedral in May 2005. Lady Sheppard died of cancer on 10 November 2010, aged 75.Bergin, Claire (12 November 2010) "Archbishop Kelly pays tribute to Lady Grace Sheppard". Independent Catholic News
The official biography of Bishop Sheppard by Andrew Bradstock of the University of Winchester, entitled Batting for the Poor, was published by SPCK on 21 November 2019.
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