Austen Gardner Shaw was born on 26 January 1917, the younger of the two children of Herbert Shaw and May Shaw née Gardner. His birth was registered in the 1st quarter of 1917 in the Barnet Registration District, Middlesex (now Greater London). His elder sister was Eileen Constance Shaw (1914-2000).
On 10 March 1917 he was baptised at St Luke's Church, Mountfield Road, Finchley, Middlesex (now Greater London), where the baptismal register confirms his date of birth, that the family resided at 23 Arden Road, Finchley and that his father was an insurance official.
He was educated in the 1930's at Haileybury School, Hertford, Hertfordshire. Electoral registers in 1938 and 1939 show him, his parents and his sister all listed at 8 North Gate, Regent's Park, London, NW8.
He served as a Gunner in the Royal Artillery and private papers held at the Imperial War Museum recount how he managed to eventually get back to England when the British Expeditionary Force was evacuated from France in May 1940. As he had been a cadet in his O.T.C.U he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant on 30 November 1940 in the Royal Artillery, service number 158726.
He held the rank of Lieutenant and was serving the Royal Artillery's 48th Light Anti Aircraft Regiment when he died, aged 25 years, on 3 March 1942 in Java, Indonesia. His body was buried in Plot 3, Row G, Grave 11, in the Jakarta War Cemetery, Jalan Menteng Pulo, 12870 Jakarta, Indonesia.
Probate records confirm that his address had been Stoke Court, Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire and that when administration of his estate was granted on 27 March 1946 to his father, who was described as an underwriting member of Lloyds, his effects totalled £24,777-18s-7d.
He is shown as 'AUSTEN, GARDNER SHAW' on the Lloyd's of London WW2 war memorial at 12 Leadenhall Street, London, EC2. He is also commemorated, incorrectly as Lieutenant Austin Gardner Shaw, on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's website.
Credit for this entry to: Andrew Behan.
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