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Auction: 19001 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 431

Family group:

Three: Private E. J. Shaw, 1/6th Battalion, Essex Regiment, who was reported as being taken P.O.W. in the First Battle of Gaza in March 1917 and who died on 27 November 1917

1914-15 Star (5223 Pte. E. J. Shaw, Essex R.); British War and Victory Medals (5223 Pte. E. J. Shaw, Essex R.), the first re-gilded and traces of possible official corrections to naming on the second, very fine


Three: Able Seaman A. J. Shaw, Royal Navy, who was lost in H.M. submarine G. 8 in January 1918

1914-15 Star (J. 7836 A. J. Shaw, A.B., R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (J. 7836 A. J. Shaw, A.B., R.N.), the first re-gilded and the second a little polished, otherwise very fine (6)

Ernest John Shaw first saw action in Gallipoli, arriving there as a reinforcement to the 1/6th Battalion on the night of the 7-8 October 1915.

He subsequently served in Egypt and Palestine, his MIC recording him as being taken P.O.W. in the First Battle of Gaza on 27 March 1917, The C.W.G.C. Register lists his date of death as 15 November 1917 - a week after the Third Battle of Gaza - but he may have died in captivity; too many did.

Aged 19, he was the son of Herbert James and Rebecca Annie Shaw of 135 Geere Road, West Ham, London. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Jerusalem Memorial.

Arthur James Shaw - Ernest's brother - was born at Bromley-by-Bow in London on 27 August 1892. Joining the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class in April 1910, he was serving as an Ordinary Seaman in the battleship H.M.S. Dominion on the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914 and he remained likewise employed until May 1915, when he transferred to the submarine base Dolphin.

Having then gained advancement to Able Seaman, he was 'lost on duty' in the submarine G. 8 in January 1918. Her last patrol began from Tees on 27 December 1917, leaving with the submarine G. 12 and the destroyer H.M.S. Medea for the Kattegat. She was ordered to start her voyage back on 3 January 1918, or possibly 48 hours later, returning to Tees on - or around - 6 January 1918. She did not return and was never heard from again. She was officially declared missing on 14 January 1918; the cause remains unknown, but it is believed she may have hit a mine in the North Sea.

Arthur is commemorated on the Chatham Naval Memorial.


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