John Chiene Shepherd was born in Liverpool, Lancashire, England on 10 October 1896 and trained as an architect at the Architectural Association in London, where he also worked as a part--time tutor. His studies at the AA had been interrupted by World War One. While serving in the Army in France he was badly injured and was awarded the Military Cross for gallantry. He subsequently returned to the AA and graduated in 1922, and was elected an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects (ARIBA) the same year. He was awarded the Henry Jarvis Studentship in 1922 and the Tite Prize in 1923. In 1925 he formed a partnership with the landscape architect Geoffrey Jellicoe (1900-1996) and together they produced the book Italian Gardens of the Renaissance (1925). Jellicoe provided the text and Shepherd the drawings.
In 1928 Shepherd married the New Zealand-born architect and fellow AA student Alison Sleigh (1898-1972), who shared a flat with the architect Elisabeth Whitworth Scott (1898-1972). Scott had won the 1927 competition to design the new Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in 1927 and in 1929 she formed the partnership Scott, Chesterton & Shepherd with Shepherd, Sleigh [now Shepherd] and Maurice Chesteron (1883-1962) to help he in the building of the theatre. A house designed by designed by Scott, Chesterton & Shepherd for the Modern Homes Exhibition at Gidea Park, Essex, in 1934 is discussed in Small Houses £500-£2500, edited by H. Myles Wright (1927 p. 87).
By 1934 Chesterton had withdrawn from the practice and John Breakwell (c.1905-1959) became a partner in the firm which was renamed Scott, Shepherd & Breakwell. Notable among projects by Scott, Shepherd & Breakwell was the Fawcett Building at Newnham College, Cambridge, competed in 1938. A house in Clapham, Sussex designed by Scott, Shepherd & Breakwell is discussed in Small Houses £500-£2500, edited by H. Myles Wright (1927 p. 89).
John Chiene Shepherd was elected a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (FRIBA) in 1935. He died in Romsey, Hampshire in 1979