Tony was my older brother, albeit by a mere 20 months, and the closest sibling in age to me. He was always kind, wise and very quick- witted. He could spin a good yarn and keep his audience entertained with accounts of his exploits and his wonderful sense of ridiculous. As teenagers we both attended schools in Bradford. I went to the all girls Saint Josephs College and Tony went to the all boys Saint Bede's school and he was a couple of years ahead of me. When I was in my third or maybe fourth year at Saint Joseph's, I was delighted to find that my popularity was increasing exponentially. All these different girls and even some from the year above wanted to drop by the house and spend time with me. I felt very loved and appreciated until I realised that they all had an ulterior motive. The object of their admiration was not me, but Tony. Tony was certainly outnumbered by his female siblings but he took it all in his stride never showing partisanship as he illustrated one particular Christmas. In typical Tony fashion, he delayed present shopping until Christmas Eve in the hopes of snapping up a few bargains. He duly took yourself off to Otley market and bought an array of belts which he gift wrapped somewhat inexpertly. He then labelled each parcel to "Our kid" and handed them out randomly without fear or favour on Christmas morning. I treasure fond memories of parties and family occasions and a couple of wonderful holidays in Massachusetts. My three, now grown up, children loved and admired their Uncle Tony. He has been a great comfort to me and he was a much loved brother in law to John. He will be greatly missed. Rest in Peace and God bless Tony.

I was first introduced to Tony and his family in 1974 by his sister Hilary who was to become my wife for some forty years. Over the decades I knew him, Tony like a brother to me, someone who was warm, generous and positive. He was a man of considerable abilities with enormous amounts of energy. With eight Shepherd siblings my memories of those early years are of large, and, as children arrived, ever-larger family gatherings. His father would take us men down to the pub in the Yorkshire village where they lived for a drink before lunch, a tradition that continued until Tony's Catherine and the other granddaughters became teenagers and insisted on joining the men! As more members of the family settled in the south so more of the parties were held at Tony and Peta's lovely home in Kingston, London. They were relaxed, generous hosts, with the house full of family from the latest babies to grandparents. The noise levels and general revelry certainly impressed my own parents when they joined us one Christmas. When Tony and Peta moved from Dallas to Cape Cod, Hilary and I cheekily said we would love to come and stay even before they had moved in. Hilary was a wheelchair user and they made converting the basement into an accessible guest suite their number one priority. We had an absolutely wonderful time together. As Hilary's MS steadily progressed, Tony would write offering his support for the difficult decisions that sometimes affected us. Because he was someone held by everyone in such high regard, this support meant a lot to me. Tony and Peta went out of their way to welcome my new partner, Vee, into the family. We were staying with them in Cape Cod the night of the Hillary Clinton/Donald Trump televised debate. The TV in the living room had broken down so the four of us sat up on their king-sized bed drinking whisky watching the presidential hopefuls circle each other. A surreal scene both on and off the screen - and a very happy memory. It was typical of Tony that five years ago when I married Vee, he and Peta came over for the wedding and he gave a warm and humorous speech. Tony's passing will leave a real gap in my life. Vee and I hope to welcome Peta over to Whitstable before too long when we can share more memories.

My big brother Anthony was 9 yers older than me almost to the day, he was the 4th of eight children and I was the 8th. By the time I was old enough to take notice he was more often than not out busy with his friends but I can remember cuddling on his knee, listening to him play his guitar and his records I believe it was "The Animals and the Kinks " that were the flavour of the day. As I got a bit older my friend's, all half in love with him, would hang around the house anytime he was at home making excuses to talk to him and giggling happily when he paid them attention, I suspect it drove him nuts but we were only 9 or 10 We used to go on holiday to Filey every summer often at the same time as our cousins, one time we were there with the Denison cousins, there were eight of them too and we were all much of an age. Anthony and John took us little ones down to the harbour to give our parents some peace. The way Anthony told it he got us to hold hands with the respective cousin of our age, then crocodile marched us down the road to the harbour, being a born entrepreneur even then, he didn't disillusion some People who assumed we were on a day trip from a school or an orphanage, and graciously accepted their offer to buy us all ice creams which we ate sitting on the beach while he and John played the amusement arcades, he won some money on the push penny machine and we all got some chips to share as well. Anthony loved everything family and many memories are tied up with big family parties at Littleburn with all our relatives, at Isobel's, Hilary's Angela's and Anthony and Petas home in London. One time I remember we were at our home in Whitstable, for some reason that escapes me Anthony was travelling back to London alone by train, Catherine had left her doll behind, I can still picture him grumbling and waving goodbye with a doll stuck out the top of his jacket. At one of Angela's parties Pete and I each thought the other were driving home. Anthony and Peta love them took us back to theirs to stay the night and even bought presents for Christopher to open the next morning as it was his 3rd birthday and all his presents were at home in Whitstable. Anthony always looked out for all his family, even when we grew up as sisters and brothers do he felt a responsibility for us all. I remember getting the big brother lecture when we visited him in Texas. The attraction he dropped us off at was mostly shut, not wanting to bother him we and our four children got on a bus, apparently that was not a good idea, the bus conductress was very kind and diverted the bus to drop us off at Dallas Alley after making sure we rang Anthony to come and get us. Bless him he was horrified because he hadn't thought to warm me not to get a bus, I think he'd have grounded me for the rest of the visit if he could. I remember the kids playing table football with him, he had a customised table with his home team in his beloved Bradford City colours, somehow his team always won, I swear that table was sloped to the opponents goal, he swore it wasn't but he wouldn't let me check with a spirit level. Anthony was so proud of his children and all their achievements, He sent me a picture of Catherine and Brandi with Barack Obama saying "whose the bloke in the middle" with true sisterly rivalry I sent him one back saying I see your president of the United States and raise you the future king of the UK, with a picture of me meeting Princess Charles, it made him laugh so much I think he finally forgave me for getting on a bus in Dallas. Night night god bless big bro, you will only ever be a thought away x

I first me Tony in the late 70's and he quickly became a close confident and someone I trusted to keep things to himself and bounce ideas off - in short a real friend. I have so many memories, but a couple that spring to mind is when I was once in the US, and went home via Dallas to see Tony and Peta when they lived there. 2 recollections spring to mind: He decided we should see the Book depository from where Oswald shot JFK, and drive down Daley Plaza where the incident took place . We left the depository and got ever closer to the actual spot in the car , and all the grainy black and white images I remember on our tiny TV as a 9 year old came flooding back. We were almost there when all of a sudden he veers off in a different direction having taken a wrong turn. On the same visit we went to Fort Worth a relatively short distance away, and with no other cars around were obviously exceeding the speed limit. All of a sudden we have a policeman on a huge Harley Davidson behind us with a siren wailing and nights flashing. This huge bloke approaches the car " leave it to me" I said "I'll get out and do the ignorant tourist bit" Tony looks horrified and screams at me "Stop! Stop! he'll shoot you" "Put your hands on the dashboard!" One speeding ticket later- welcome to Texas. One thing we did have in common was when we left our respective Universities with no idea what to do, we both took the soft option of the one year post graduate diploma (PGCE) and qualified as teachers a direction we both never took up. In later years we both concluded that the best thing that ever happened to the UK education system was that neither of us had anything to do with it. My friend Tony , one of the good guys.