Shaw, Eyre Massey

Date of death: 30 July 1917

Age at death: 21

Cause of death: died from wounds

Place of burial/commemoration: Warloy-Baillon Communal Cemetery extension

From the Pauline Magazine: Died of wounds on 30 July. While engaged in a surprise night attack on a German trench, he was struck by a piece of bomb and died the next day. His colonel wrote: “He was a very, good officer, and one of the nicest men it has been my fortune to know.”

He entered St. Paul’s in the summer term of 1909, and left three years later to farm in South Africa. After a year he returned to England and entered a shipping office in the City. At the outbreak of war he joined the Army, and had not been long at his new duties when a serious motor-bicycle accident laid him on his back for many months. He never thought to see active service again; but his spirit prevailed, and he was drafted to the front and to the very company commanded by his friend, Crombie.

One could not live five minutes in Shaw’s society without wanting to make it an hour: he was born to make life pleasant and captivating for others. His imperturbable good temper, his aloofness from all turmoil — it was almost uncanny – his adaptability that made him a friend of all, his ideals that appealed to strong and weak alike, were antidotes to all of the minor spiritual ills.