Frederick Shaw

Lieutenant-General Sir Frederick Charles Shaw ( 31 July 1861 – 6 January 1942) was a British Army general who served in the Boer War and the First World War. He became Commander-in-Chief, Ireland, and retired in 1920.

Family Frederick Charles Shaw was born on 31 July 1861, the son of John Shaw of Normanton, Derbyshire.

Early military career Shaw was commissioned as a second lieutenant into a Militia unit, the 2nd West York, on 24 December 1879.

After just over two years with this unit, he transferred over into the Sherwood Foresters, and the Regular Army, as a lieutenant on 28 January 1882. He saw service in the Anglo-Egyptian War later the same year,

Towards the end of the 1890s he "took part in the expeditions to Malta and Crete". he served during the Second Boer War, which began later that same month, serving mainly as a staff officer. Promoted to brevet colonel in August 1906 and to substantive lieutenant colonel in August 1907, he was made commanding officer (CO) of the 2nd Battalion, Sherwood Foresters. he succeeded Colonel Aylmer Hunter-Weston as a general staff officer, grade 1 (GSO1) in India, His next assignment, which took him back to the United Kingdom, saw him promoted to the temporary rank of brigadier general in May 1913, when he took command of the 3rd Division's 9th Infantry Brigade.

First World War King George V (centre, mounted) inspecting the 29th Division at Dunchurch, Warwickshire, prior to the division's departure for Gallipoli, 12 March 1915. The division's GOC, Major General Shaw, rides alongside the king at the right of the photo.

He served in the First World War, which began in the summer of 1914, initially commanding his brigade in which role he deployed to France with the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). The brigade, under Shaw's command, "was involved in heavy fighting" throughout most of 1914, most notably during the Battle of Mons and the subsequent Great Retreat and later at the First Battle of Ypres. The division suffered heavily in these first few months of the war and saw the loss in action of its first wartime GOC, Major General Hubert Hamilton, along with his successor, Major General Colin Mackenzie.

After his recovery, in early 1915, he was in January 1915 appointed as general officer commanding (GOC) of the newly formed 29th Division, the last division of the Regular Army to be created during the war.

He then became director of home defence and subsequently chief of the general staff (CGS) for Home Forces.

Postwar and final years On 19 September 1919, during the Irish War of Independence, he suggested that the police force in Ireland be expanded via the recruitment of a special force of volunteer British ex-servicemen. Following direct intervention from London, the "Black and Tans" and Auxiliary Division of the Constabulary were introduced in order to achieve a decisive result. This intervention preceded a purge of the Irish administration at Dublin Castle during which Shaw himself was replaced.

Shaw, who in June 1919 was promoted to substantive lieutenant general, retired in 1920.

He died on 6 January 1942, during the Second World War, at the age of 80.