Colonel Paul’s Honour

Colonel Paul Shepard, Cadet Commandant of 1^st Northern Ireland Battalion ACF has been honoured at Buckingham Palace with the presentation of an O.B.E, one of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Birthday Honours.

The Award recognises his “outstanding leadership, which has helped the ACF to flourish in Northern Ireland in unique and challenging circumstances”. 

Colonel Shepard is a member of the academic staff at the University of Ulster and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA) and is currently the Teaching and Learning Coordinator for the Health Science and the programme director for the BSc (Hons) Radiotherapy and Oncology programme.

He is typically modest about this latest achievement, saying, “I am privileged to be the Cadet Commandant of the 1^st (NI) Bn ACF and am eternally grateful for the opportunity to serve to lead. I felt particularly valued, as we celebrated Her Majesty’s Diamond Jubilee, to be appointed an Ordinary Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire and it was fantastic recently to travel to Buckingham Palace with my family to receive the award which I dedicate to everyone who volunteers to serve. For me, it has been a privilege to serve in the Territorial Army and Army Cadet Force during the past thirty years and I am delighted to have the opportunity publicly to thank my wife and family for their continued support over the years”. 

Adding to the congratulations Colonel Norman Walker OBE, Chairman of the Reserve Forces and Cadets Association for Northern Ireland said, “We are all delighted to see this splendid and well deserved recognition for ‘Colonel Paul’ as he is known to all in the Cadet movement. He has given decades of service to his community with determination, a sense of purpose and unswerving commitment. His faith in the young people who make up our vibrant and hugely successful Cadet movement is equalled only by his own lively sense of fun. He is both respected and tremendously popular with the Cadets.”