Percy Shaw Jeffrey

Percy Shaw Jeffrey

Early teaching career Whilst reading for a maths scholarship at the University of Marburg, Shaw Jeffrey was offered the chance to work at Trent College, unofficially, as first the headmaster's private secretary, and then as a teacher. He was disappointed to receive a degree with only third-class honours, however, and was advised to put any ambition of teaching on hold—advice which he did not follow. Although it was not his initial intention, in 1893 he took up a post as private tutor to a student he had been coaching at The Skinners' School and travelled to Florida with him.

Headmaster at Colchester Royal Grammar School

Having been an assistant master at the Clifton College for three years, he was offered a position as headmaster at a new school which was to be founded in Argentina by the educationalist Michael Ernest Sadler, but could not get the funding to travel there, instead he assumed the role of headmaster at Colchester Royal Grammar School and by the end of 1900 he had already made his mark on the school—achievements included the introduction of a new school song, to 180 boys under his guidance, particularly through the introduction of day pupils. Shaw Jeffrey is also credited with the introduction of many changes at the school, including the introduction of purple blazers, the setting up of the Old Colcestrian Society for former boys (and quite often honoured former masters), This ran for over sixty consecutive years, and has recently been restarted in a similar style. Even after he left the school, he wrote into the magazine, adding his own memories, thoughts and opinions on articles of news published. He often signed himself off as "J", "an abbreviation that was and is commonly used in reference to him" The change from School House to Shaw Jeffrey's House completed a quartet that had featured three other notable headmasters of the school since Shaw Jeffrey himself introduced the four-house system in 1908. it was, however, the replica that was taken by Shaw Jeffrey and the original hung in the school, where it remains.

Price regarded Shaw Jeffrey's testimonies as an "important contribution to the evidence for the early haunting of Borley Rectory", and used them in many of the studies which made the rectory famous in 1937. –phonetically, in his opinion.

After retirement, Shaw Jeffrey could also give time to his love of travelling, and authored a number of related titles. Round the World with an Empress and Round the world with the 'Empress of Britain''' (both Ed. J. Burrow) were accounts of the trips he made while lecturing on board the liners of Canadian Pacific Railway during the British winter; a series dubbed The Little Travel Books (Horne) documented others of his travels, and grew out of articles he wrote for the Whitby Gazette. From 1914 onwards they also had possession of Whitby's Bagdale Old Hall, built in 1530, as a residence, and eventually took residence there on his return from South Africa, though they were often away travelling.

Despite retirement from any sort of career, Shaw Jeffrey maintained that he "had no intention of leading an idle life" and was variously an inspector and examiner for both the University of Cambridge and the University of London and an assessor for all of Cambridge's French papers for five years after the introduction of the higher certificate. He was also an occasional inspector in modern languages for the Board of Education and deputised as professor of French at the University of Durham while the professor himself was incapacitated due to illness. He was an assessor of all modern language papers set at Durham for five years. He continued to fill in positions inspecting in Spanish and Italian, despite only having learned the languages during his travels.

Although he spent barely 10 or 12 weeks in any one year in Whitby, he was still attached to it. Shortly before his death he published A Haunt of Ancient Peace, a history of Bagdale Old Hall (with Sir D'Arcy Power, KBE), and also made several large donations: £3000 to Whitby Parish Church, £2000 to the museum and £500 to the Whitby Literary and Philosophy Society.

Shaw Jeffrey died on 22 February 1952, leaving Alice as a widow. The couple had just celebrated their golden wedding anniversary, a fact reported in the Essex County Standard'', along with a short obituary, and an overview of the latest Old Colcestrian annual meeting (held only a day after his death), at which a variety of tributes had been paid. The article describes him as "one of Colchester's most famous headmasters" and one with "tons of personality". His death was particularly poignant for members of CRGS, for it came two days before a World War Two war memorial, for which he and his wife had contributed the majority of the money, was to be unveiled and dedicated. On her death, his wife left their house in Whitby to the Whitby Literary and Philosophy Society, though efforts to turn it into a museum were ultimately unsuccessful.