Arthur Gilbey Shaw was born on 15 February 1895 in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, the third of the ten children of the Reverend Edward Domett Shaw (1860-1937) and Agnes Shaw née Gilbey (1867-1944). His father would later become the Right Reverend Edward Domett Shaw, The Bishop of Buckinghamshire. His birth was registered in the 1st quarter of 1895 in the Wycombe registration district, Buckinghamshire and on 1 March 1895 he was baptised in High Wycombe.
He was shown as aged 6 years in the 1901 census, living in 'The Vicarage', Castle Street, High Wycombe, with his parents, five siblings: Edward Alfred Shaw (1892-1916); Bernard Henry Gilbert Shaw: (1893-1914); Agnes Mary Shaw (1896-1995); Vera Elizabeth Shaw (1898-1996) and Robert John Shaw (1900-1995), together with a cook, a parlour maid and two nurses. His father was described as a clergyman in the Church of England.
From September 1908 to August 1914 he attended Marlborough College, Bath Road, Marlborough, Wiltshire and this is confirmed on the 1911 census where is shown as aged 16 years and one of the college's 370 students. His family were recorded as residing in an eleven roomed property in Reynolds Road, Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire and his father described himself as an Archdeacon (Church of England).
On leaving Marlborough College he was accepted into Keble College, University of Oxford, but before matriculation he joined the army and the London Gazette published on 15 September 1914 shows that he was commissioned on 12 September 1914 as a temporary Second Lieutenant.
He entered France in July 1915. Promoted to Lieutenant he was serving in 'C' Company, 10th Battalion, The Sherwood Foresters (Nottingham and Derbyshire Regiment), when, aged 20 years, early in the morning on 24 December 1915 he was shot by a German sniper whilst visiting his Company.
His body was buried in the Menin Road North Military Cemetery, but this was destroyed in later battles. Following the end of World War One the crosses that had been erected on his grave (but not his remains) was recovered and was re-erected in the Menin Road South Military Cemetery, Meenseweg 134, 8900 Ieper, Belgium. On 29 April 1922 the Imperial War Graves Commission (now called the Commonwealth War Graves Commission) replaced this cross with a memorial stone, number 57. Unfortunately, they incorrectly recorded his age as 19 years.
On 21 February 1916 his army effects totalling £85-11s-10d were sent to his father. He was posthumously awarded the 1914-1915 Star, the British War Medal 1914-1918 and the Victory Medal and this were despatched to his father at Reynolds Road, Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire.
He is shown as 'SHAW. A.G. LIEUT. 10TH. SHERWOOD FORESTERS.' on the Quebec Chapel war memorial at the Church of The Annunciation, Bryanston Street, London, W1H 7AH. He is also commemorated on the Beaconsfield War Memorial, outside St Mary and All Saints Church, Windsor End, Beaconsfield, on the The Shaw Window in All Saints Church, Castle Street, High Wycombe, HP13 6RF, on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's website, on the Imperial War Museum's Lives of the First World War website, on the Marlborough College Roll of Honour and on the Keble College Roll of Honour.
Credit for this entry to: Andrew Behan.
