Robert Edward Frederic Shaw was born on 29 August 1891, the second of the five children of Robert Villiers George Shaw (1864-1946) and Agnes Marion Shaw née Guy (1862-1955). His birth was registered in the 4th quarter of 1891 in the Monmouth registration district, Monmouthshire, England, (now Wales). On 6 September 1891 he was baptised by his father at The Church of St Cadoc, Llangattock Vibon Avel, Monmouthshire, where in the baptismal register the family address was given as The Vicarage, Llangattock Vibon Avel and that his father was the Curate and a Clerk in Holy Orders.
In the 1901 census he is shown as aged 9 years, living in The Vicarage, St Paul's Church, Abbots Langley, Hertfordshire, with his parents and three siblings: Alice Marion Shaw (1889-1973); Kathleen Agnes Norah Shaw (1893-1932) and Mary Dorothy Shaw (1899-1978), together with a governess and a female general domestic servant. On 23 April 1903 his younger brother, John Francis St.George Shaw (1903-1986) was born.
From our Picture Source website we learn that he entered Keble College at Oxford University in the 1910 Michaelmas Term. He was a member of the 1st Association Football XI, 1911 – 1914; a member of the Lawn Tennis VI (Captain) and a member of the University Contingent of the Officers’ Training Corps.
He commenced his military service on 14 October 1914 as a Second Lieutenant in the 13th (County of London) Battalion, The London Regiment (Kensington) and entered France on 21 December 1914. He became a Lieutenant in 1915, a Captain and Adjutant in 1916 and was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in 1917. He was awarded the Military Cross in 1918 and was also Mentioned in Despatches. He was killed in action, aged 26 years, by a sniper on 23 August 1918. His body was buried in Plot 3, Row A, Grave 8 in the Blairville Orchard British Cemetery, a cemetery in an orchard next to a farm in Blairville, France. Bodies in these smaller cemeteries were later concentrated into larger cemeteries and his body was exhumed in 1923 and reburied in Plot 8, Row N, Grave 11 in the Cabaret-Rouge British Cemetery, 5000F Rue Carnot, 62153 Souchez, France.
Probate records confirm that his address had been The Vicarage, Langleybury, Hertfordshire, and that when administration of his estate was granted to his father on 14 January 1919 his effects totalled £1,058-2s-10d. His army effects totalling £365-19s-2d were sent to his father on 19 April 1919. He was posthumously awarded the 1914-1915 Star, the British War Medal 1914-1918 and the Victory Medal that were sent to his father on 11 November 1920 at Langleybury Vicarage, King's Langley, Hertfordshire.
He is shown as SHAW. R.E.F. LT.COL. 13TH.LON.REG.K.BATT. on the Quebec Chapel war memorial at the Church of The Annunciation, Bryanston Street, London, W1H 7AH and as LTCOL. R.E.F. SHAW M.C. on the Langleybury war memorial outside St Paul's Church, Langleybury Lane, Kings Langley, WD4 8QQ. He is also commemorated on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's website, on the Imperial War Museum's Lives of the First World War website which, in 2023, gives his year of birth incorrectly as 1892 and on the Herts at War website.
Credit for this entry to: Andrew Behan.
