# Frederick Shaw (British Army officer)

Lieutenant General Sir Frederick Charles Shaw KCB PC (Ire) ( 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

Shaw was born on 31 July 1861, the son of John Shaw of Normanton, Derbyshire. He was educated at Repton School. He married Florence Edith Denton, daughter of Reverend Canon Denton of Ashby-de-la-Zouch. She died in 1918; they had one daughter.

## 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, and was promoted to captain on 14 October 1889.
Promoted to major on 11 October 1899, he served during the Second Boer War as a brigade major, then as deputy assistant adjutant general (DAAG) and then as assistant adjutant general (AAG). He received the brevet rank of lieutenant colonel on 29 November 1900.
Following the end of the war, he return to the United Kingdom in August 1902. 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.
Promoted to substantive colonel in March 1911, he succeeded Colonel Aylmer Hunter-Weston as a general staff officer, grade 1 (GSO1) in India, before being promoted to the temporary rank of brigadier general in May 1913, when he took command of the 3rd Division's 9th Infantry Brigade.
He served in World War I, initially commanding his 9th Brigade in which role he deployed to France with the British Expeditionary Force. He was wounded by a shell that hit his headquarters on 12 November and evacuated to Britain. He was promoted to major general on 28 December 1914, "for distinguished conduct in the Field". After his recovery, in 1915, he was initially appointed as general officer commanding (GOC) of the 29th Division on its mobilisation in January. Just two months later, however, he was replaced by Major General Aylmer Hunter-Weston and was later appointed GOC of the 13th (Western) Division, which he led in the Gallipoli campaign from May until October. He then became director of home defence and subsequently chief of the general staff for Home Forces. This was followed in May 1918 by his being appointed as Commander-in-Chief, Ireland, taking over from Bryan Mahon and receiving a temporary promotion to lieutenant general.
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 and died on 6 January 1942, during the Second World War, at the age of 80.