Charles Shaw (soldier)
Encyclopedia
Brigadier-General Sir Charles Shaw (1795—22 February 1871) was a Scottish
soldier and liberal, who served in the British Army
and in British volunteer forces on the constitutional side in civil wars in Portugal
and Spain
. He was later a pioneering police commissioner.
, Scotland
, where his father was the county clerk. He was educated at Aberdeen and Edinburgh universities, destined for the law, but chose a military career instead.
by purchase in 1813. He joined the 2nd Battalion, a training cadre supplying drafts to the 1st Battalion serving in the Peninsular War
. In December 1813 the 2/52nd (only 196 strong) embarked in Sir Thomas Graham
’s expedition to the Low Countries
. Shaw saw action at the capture of the village of Merxem in deep snow on 31 January 1814, but the weak 2/52nd was an ineffective combat unit and was left out of Graham’s attack on Bergen-op-Zoom, being employed in the siege of Antwerp and subsequently in garrison duty. For the 1815 campaign the 2/52nd was drafted into the newly-arrived 1/52nd. On 17 June, as a junior lieutenant (promoted December 1813) Shaw was sent to Brussels in charge of the baggage. Rushing back, he reached Waterloo village on the morning of 18 June, but to his chagrin was ordered to return to his duty and so missed the Battle of Waterloo
in which the 52nd bore a distinguished part. Nevertheless he did receive the Waterloo Medal
. He served in the Occupation of Paris and returned to the 2/52nd in England in 1816.
The 2/52nd was disbanded in 1816 and Shaw was placed on half pay
. In 1817 he transferred to the 90th (Perthshire) Light Infantry. Before joining his new regiment Shaw took leave to travel on the Continent to further his military education. He enrolled as a student in the military department of the Carolinum College at Brunswick
, then visited Berlin
to observe the Prussian Army
. He joined the 90th in March 1818, but the British Army continued to contract, and Shaw was soon on half pay again. He returned to Edinburgh University, then acquired a partnership in a wine import business in Leith
. In his spare time he acted as captain-commandant of the Leith Sharpshooters, a volunteer unit.
raising a force to restore his daughter Queen Maria to the throne of Portugal, which had been usurped by his brother Dom Miguel
(the Portuguese Liberal Wars
). Under the Foreign Enlistment Act of 1819
it was illegal to recruit for foreign armies on British soil, but operating from the London slums of Seven Dials
and Soho
, keeping one step ahead of police raids, Shaw and the other ‘Liberators’ hired several hundred ‘labourers for Brazil’. They formed a battalion
of marines for Dom Pedro’s British-manned fleet, and Shaw was given command of the Light Company
with a captain
’s commission. In December 1831 they sailed to the Azores
, which was Pedro’s base, and after training there the ‘Liberating Army of Portugal’ landed on the mainland near Porto
on 5 July 1832. Shaw with his Light Company were among the first to land and Shaw claimed to have personally fired the first shot of the campaign in a brush with a Miguelite vedette
. The force occupied Porto the same afternoon but were soon closely besieged by the Miguelites.
Shaw distinguished himself in the regular sortie
s and assaults during the siege, and was wounded on several occasions. Dr Jebb, a former British Army surgeon serving with the Liberators, claimed to have operated on Shaw 12 times during the siege. After one attack, while a staff officer reported the heavy officer casualties, Dom Pedro suddenly asked after Shaw. On being told that he was not wounded, the Regent said, ‘I am glad of it, he seldom escapes’.
Reinforcements arrived by sea during the winter, and the Marine battalion was expanded to a regiment
, with Shaw as one of the battalion commanders. He was then given command of a contingent of Scottish
recruits, which he formed into the ‘Scotch Fusiliers’(not to be confused with the British Army's Royal Scots Fusiliers). After Admiral Napier
’s naval victory at Cape St Vincent
, the Pedroites were able to use sea-lift capability to open a second front at Lisbon
, and Shaw and his men later joined this force.
On 29 September 1833 they rushed Óbidos, a town up the coast. By the following spring, Shaw commanded the whole British Brigade
. In May 1834 he and the Scotch Fusiliers served under Napier in a bloodless siege of Ourém
.
The Miguelite army capitulated
soon afterwards, and Shaw marched the British Brigade to Lisbon on 1 June where he handed over command to a Portuguese officer. However, he remained in Portugal for another year, trying to get a financial settlement for his men – they were still awaiting full payment when Shaw published his memoirs in 1837. In 1835 he was awarded the knighthood of the Order of the Tower and Sword
.
under General George de Lacy Evans
for service in Spain during the First Carlist War
. On landing in Spain, Shaw was angry to discover that he was only to rank as a colonel, and not as a brigadier-general, and that his Scotch Brigade was broken up. He commanded a smaller brigade in the relief of Bilbao
, the march to Vitoria, and the action on the Heights of Arbalan (16–22 January 1836). Shaw was made governor of Vitoria and struggled to equip the hospitals during the typhus
epidemic that broke out among the BAL's unfit, cold and hungry men. Shaw described ‘the hospitals choke full, four or five in a bed: discharging none except to their graves’.
In February 1836 Shaw was given command of the Irish Brigade – 'decidedly the best brigade in the Legion’, he wrote - and was finally promoted to the rank of Brigadier-General. He marched the brigade back to the coast in April, and embarked at Santander
as part of the BAL's seaborne relief expedition to San Sebastian
. He led the centre column during the fierce action of 5 May, when the BAL broke through three lines of Carlist besiegers, and even his enemies recognised the courage he showed. Shaw had been hit by a spent ball, and another had struck his watch. He was awarded the Spanish Order of San Fernando.
On 31 May 1836 Shaw and his brigade again took a leading part in defending the BAL's lines around tha village of Alza against a fierce Carlist attack. On 11 July Shaw's brigade led a reconnaissance in force along the coast towards the French border, aiming to cut the Carlists off from the sea. While his battalions fought over a bridge, Shaw led a patrol right up to the walls of Fuenterrabia. He felt that he could have seized this last Carlist seaport by coup de main if he had been supported, but no reinforcements reached him, and the Legion withdrew. Shaw's letter to his brother describing this action was leaked to the Courier newspaper in London, which praised Shaw and denigrated the BAL's leadership. Evans accused Shaw of leaking the letter himself, with the result that Shaw resigned and returned to Britain.
Shaw was knighted
by Queen Victoria in 1838.
unrest in North West England, Shaw was appointed by the Government as the first Chief Commissioner of Police in Manchester
and Bolton
. He endeavoured to create a neutral force that was independent both of the mill-owners (who dominated the municipal authorities) and of the trade unionists and Chartists. In 1841 he led the hunt for the 'Ashton Murderers'. During the Anti-Corn Law Riots
and Plug Plot Riots in the summer of 1842, Shaw was forced to call on military assistance. At one point he personally led a charge by a troop of dragoons against a mob of rioters. Shaw had considerable sympathy for the Chartists and the poor of Manchester, and was removed from his post when the Manchester municipal authorities took over responsibility for the Borough Police on 1 October 1842.
, soldiers' welfare, and coastal defence. His articles for the Caledonian Mercury during the invasion scare of 1859 make his points by describing a mythical attack on the port of Leith, somewhat in the style of Chesney's later The Battle of Dorking or Swinton's The Defence of Duffer's Drift. In these he advocated the used of 'rifle batteries' consisting of 12-20 rifle barrels that could be operated by one or two men, using the analogy of mechanical looms that did the work of many weavers. These 'rifle batteries' seem to prefigure the later Nordenfeldt gun.
In later life Shaw lived at Bad Homberg, Germany, where he died in February 1871. As a holder of the Waterloo Medal he was buried with military honours, his funeral attended by French and Prussian officers.
type ... fired by Dom Pedro’s anti-absolutist crusades’. A British volunteer was amused by the Portuguese soldiers' long beards, but Shaw’s ‘quite eclipsed all of them, being of enormous length, and as fiery in appearance as the tail of a comet’. No likeness of Shaw appears to have survived.
Scottish people
The Scottish people , or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically they emerged from an amalgamation of the Picts and Gaels, incorporating neighbouring Britons to the south as well as invading Germanic peoples such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse.In modern use,...
soldier and liberal, who served in the British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
and in British volunteer forces on the constitutional side in civil wars in Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
and Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
. He was later a pioneering police commissioner.
Early years
Charles Shaw was born in 1795 in AyrAyr
Ayr is a town and port situated on the Firth of Clyde in south-west Scotland. With a population of around 46,000, Ayr is the largest settlement in Ayrshire, of which it is the county town, and has held royal burgh status since 1205...
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, where his father was the county clerk. He was educated at Aberdeen and Edinburgh universities, destined for the law, but chose a military career instead.
British Army
Shaw was commissioned into the 52nd (Oxfordshire) Light Infantry as an ensignEnsign (rank)
Ensign is a junior rank of a commissioned officer in the armed forces of some countries, normally in the infantry or navy. As the junior officer in an infantry regiment was traditionally the carrier of the ensign flag, the rank itself acquired the name....
by purchase in 1813. He joined the 2nd Battalion, a training cadre supplying drafts to the 1st Battalion serving in the Peninsular War
Peninsular War
The Peninsular War was a war between France and the allied powers of Spain, the United Kingdom, and Portugal for control of the Iberian Peninsula during the Napoleonic Wars. The war began when French and Spanish armies crossed Spain and invaded Portugal in 1807. Then, in 1808, France turned on its...
. In December 1813 the 2/52nd (only 196 strong) embarked in Sir Thomas Graham
Thomas Graham, 1st Baron Lynedoch
General Thomas Graham, 1st Baron Lynedoch, GCB, GCMG, GCTE was a Scottish aristocrat, politician and British Army officer....
’s expedition to the Low Countries
Low Countries
The Low Countries are the historical lands around the low-lying delta of the Rhine, Scheldt, and Meuse rivers, including the modern countries of Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and parts of northern France and western Germany....
. Shaw saw action at the capture of the village of Merxem in deep snow on 31 January 1814, but the weak 2/52nd was an ineffective combat unit and was left out of Graham’s attack on Bergen-op-Zoom, being employed in the siege of Antwerp and subsequently in garrison duty. For the 1815 campaign the 2/52nd was drafted into the newly-arrived 1/52nd. On 17 June, as a junior lieutenant (promoted December 1813) Shaw was sent to Brussels in charge of the baggage. Rushing back, he reached Waterloo village on the morning of 18 June, but to his chagrin was ordered to return to his duty and so missed the Battle of Waterloo
Battle of Waterloo
The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815 near Waterloo in present-day Belgium, then part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands...
in which the 52nd bore a distinguished part. Nevertheless he did receive the Waterloo Medal
Waterloo Medal
The Waterloo Medal was awarded to any soldier of the British Army who took part in one or more of the following battles: Battle of Ligny , Battle of Quatre Bras , and the Battle of Waterloo ....
. He served in the Occupation of Paris and returned to the 2/52nd in England in 1816.
The 2/52nd was disbanded in 1816 and Shaw was placed on half pay
Half-pay
In the British Army and Royal Navy of the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries, half-pay referred to the pay or allowance an officer received when in retirement or not in actual service....
. In 1817 he transferred to the 90th (Perthshire) Light Infantry. Before joining his new regiment Shaw took leave to travel on the Continent to further his military education. He enrolled as a student in the military department of the Carolinum College at Brunswick
Braunschweig
Braunschweig , is a city of 247,400 people, located in the federal-state of Lower Saxony, Germany. It is located north of the Harz mountains at the farthest navigable point of the Oker river, which connects to the North Sea via the rivers Aller and Weser....
, then visited Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
to observe the Prussian Army
Prussian Army
The Royal Prussian Army was the army of the Kingdom of Prussia. It was vital to the development of Brandenburg-Prussia as a European power.The Prussian Army had its roots in the meager mercenary forces of Brandenburg during the Thirty Years' War...
. He joined the 90th in March 1818, but the British Army continued to contract, and Shaw was soon on half pay again. He returned to Edinburgh University, then acquired a partnership in a wine import business in Leith
Leith
-South Leith v. North Leith:Up until the late 16th century Leith , comprised two separate towns on either side of the river....
. In his spare time he acted as captain-commandant of the Leith Sharpshooters, a volunteer unit.
Liberating Army of Portugal
Shaw sold his business interests to travel on the Continent in 1830. In 1831 he joined Dom Pedro, former Emperor of Brazil, who was in LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
raising a force to restore his daughter Queen Maria to the throne of Portugal, which had been usurped by his brother Dom Miguel
Miguel of Portugal
Dom Miguel I, sometimes Michael , was the King of Portugal between 1828 and 1834, the seventh child and second son of King John VI and his queen, Charlotte of Spain....
(the Portuguese Liberal Wars
Liberal Wars
The Liberal Wars, also known as the Portuguese Civil War, the War of the Two Brothers, or Miguelite War, was a war between progressive constitutionalists and authoritarian absolutists in Portugal over royal succession that lasted from 1828 to 1834...
). Under the Foreign Enlistment Act of 1819
Foreign Enlistment Act 1870
The Foreign Enlistment Act 1870 is an Act of Parliament of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that seeks to regulate mercenary activities of British citizens.It received the royal assent on 9 August 1870.-Background:...
it was illegal to recruit for foreign armies on British soil, but operating from the London slums of Seven Dials
Seven Dials
Seven Dials is a small but well-known road junction in the West End of London in Covent Garden where seven streets converge. At the centre of the roughly-circular space is a pillar bearing six sundials, a result of the pillar being commissioned before a late stage alteration of the plans from an...
and Soho
Soho
Soho is an area of the City of Westminster and part of the West End of London. Long established as an entertainment district, for much of the 20th century Soho had a reputation for sex shops as well as night life and film industry. Since the early 1980s, the area has undergone considerable...
, keeping one step ahead of police raids, Shaw and the other ‘Liberators’ hired several hundred ‘labourers for Brazil’. They formed a battalion
Battalion
A battalion is a military unit of around 300–1,200 soldiers usually consisting of between two and seven companies and typically commanded by either a Lieutenant Colonel or a Colonel...
of marines for Dom Pedro’s British-manned fleet, and Shaw was given command of the Light Company
Light infantry
Traditionally light infantry were soldiers whose job was to provide a skirmishing screen ahead of the main body of infantry, harassing and delaying the enemy advance. Light infantry was distinct from medium, heavy or line infantry. Heavy infantry were dedicated primarily to fighting in tight...
with a captain
Captain (British Army and Royal Marines)
Captain is a junior officer rank of the British Army and Royal Marines. It ranks above Lieutenant and below Major and has a NATO ranking code of OF-2. The rank is equivalent to a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy and to a Flight Lieutenant in the Royal Air Force...
’s commission. In December 1831 they sailed to the Azores
Azores
The Archipelago of the Azores is composed of nine volcanic islands situated in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, and is located about west from Lisbon and about east from the east coast of North America. The islands, and their economic exclusion zone, form the Autonomous Region of the...
, which was Pedro’s base, and after training there the ‘Liberating Army of Portugal’ landed on the mainland near Porto
Porto
Porto , also known as Oporto in English, is the second largest city in Portugal and one of the major urban areas in the Iberian Peninsula. Its administrative limits include a population of 237,559 inhabitants distributed within 15 civil parishes...
on 5 July 1832. Shaw with his Light Company were among the first to land and Shaw claimed to have personally fired the first shot of the campaign in a brush with a Miguelite vedette
Vedette
The French military term vedette , also spelled vidette, migrated into English and other languages to refer to a mounted sentry or outpost, who has the function of bringing information, giving signals or warnings of danger, etc., to a main body of troops...
. The force occupied Porto the same afternoon but were soon closely besieged by the Miguelites.
Shaw distinguished himself in the regular sortie
Sortie
Sortie is a term for deployment or dispatch of one military unit, be it an aircraft, ship, or troops from a strongpoint. The sortie, whether by one or more aircraft or vessels, usually has a specific mission....
s and assaults during the siege, and was wounded on several occasions. Dr Jebb, a former British Army surgeon serving with the Liberators, claimed to have operated on Shaw 12 times during the siege. After one attack, while a staff officer reported the heavy officer casualties, Dom Pedro suddenly asked after Shaw. On being told that he was not wounded, the Regent said, ‘I am glad of it, he seldom escapes’.
Reinforcements arrived by sea during the winter, and the Marine battalion was expanded to a regiment
Regiment
A regiment is a major tactical military unit, composed of variable numbers of batteries, squadrons or battalions, commanded by a colonel or lieutenant colonel...
, with Shaw as one of the battalion commanders. He was then given command of a contingent of Scottish
Scottish people
The Scottish people , or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically they emerged from an amalgamation of the Picts and Gaels, incorporating neighbouring Britons to the south as well as invading Germanic peoples such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse.In modern use,...
recruits, which he formed into the ‘Scotch Fusiliers’(not to be confused with the British Army's Royal Scots Fusiliers). After Admiral Napier
Charles Napier (naval officer)
Admiral Sir Charles John Napier KCB GOTE RN was a Scottish naval officer whose sixty years in the Royal Navy included service in the Napoleonic Wars, Syrian War and the Crimean War, and a period commanding the Portuguese navy in the Liberal Wars...
’s naval victory at Cape St Vincent
Battle of Cape St. Vincent (1833)
The fourth Battle of Cape St Vincent was fought on 5 July 1833 and was a decisive encounter in Portugal's Liberal Wars. A naval squadron commanded by the British officer Charles Napier, on behalf of Dom Pedro IV, regent for the rightful Queen Maria II, defeated the navy of the usurper Dom...
, the Pedroites were able to use sea-lift capability to open a second front at Lisbon
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
, and Shaw and his men later joined this force.
On 29 September 1833 they rushed Óbidos, a town up the coast. By the following spring, Shaw commanded the whole British Brigade
Brigade
A brigade is a major tactical military formation that is typically composed of two to five battalions, plus supporting elements depending on the era and nationality of a given army and could be perceived as an enlarged/reinforced regiment...
. In May 1834 he and the Scotch Fusiliers served under Napier in a bloodless siege of Ourém
Ourém
Ourém is a municipality in Portugal with a total area of 416.6 km² and a total population of 49,269 inhabitants. The city itself has a population of about 12,000.The municipality is composed of 18 parishes, and is located in the district of Santarém...
.
The Miguelite army capitulated
Capitulation (surrender)
Capitulation , an agreement in time of war for the surrender to a hostile armed force of a particular body of troops, a town or a territory....
soon afterwards, and Shaw marched the British Brigade to Lisbon on 1 June where he handed over command to a Portuguese officer. However, he remained in Portugal for another year, trying to get a financial settlement for his men – they were still awaiting full payment when Shaw published his memoirs in 1837. In 1835 he was awarded the knighthood of the Order of the Tower and Sword
Order of the Tower and Sword
The Military Order of the Tower and of the Sword, of Valour, Loyalty and Merit is a Portuguese order of knighthood and the pinnacle of the Portuguese honours system. It was created by King Afonso V in 1459....
.
British Auxiliary Legion
In 1835 Shaw travelled to Glasgow with some of his veterans from Portugal to raise the 'Scotch Brigade' of the British Auxiliary LegionBritish Legion (1835)
The Auxiliary Legion or the British Legion of the Spanish Legion existed from 1835 to 1837. It was a British military force sent to Spain to support the Liberals and Queen Isabella II of Spain against the Carlists in the First Carlist War.-History:Under the Quadruple Alliance Great Britain had...
under General George de Lacy Evans
George de Lacy Evans
Sir De Lacy Evans GCB was a British Army general who served in four wars in which the United Kingdom's troops took part in the 19th century. He was later a long-serving Member of Parliament....
for service in Spain during the First Carlist War
First Carlist War
The First Carlist War was a civil war in Spain from 1833-1839.-Historical background:At the beginning of the 18th century, Philip V, the first Bourbon king of Spain, promulgated the Salic Law, which declared illegal the inheritance of the Spanish crown by women...
. On landing in Spain, Shaw was angry to discover that he was only to rank as a colonel, and not as a brigadier-general, and that his Scotch Brigade was broken up. He commanded a smaller brigade in the relief of Bilbao
Bilbao
Bilbao ) is a Spanish municipality, capital of the province of Biscay, in the autonomous community of the Basque Country. With a population of 353,187 , it is the largest city of its autonomous community and the tenth largest in Spain...
, the march to Vitoria, and the action on the Heights of Arbalan (16–22 January 1836). Shaw was made governor of Vitoria and struggled to equip the hospitals during the typhus
Typhus
Epidemic typhus is a form of typhus so named because the disease often causes epidemics following wars and natural disasters...
epidemic that broke out among the BAL's unfit, cold and hungry men. Shaw described ‘the hospitals choke full, four or five in a bed: discharging none except to their graves’.
In February 1836 Shaw was given command of the Irish Brigade – 'decidedly the best brigade in the Legion’, he wrote - and was finally promoted to the rank of Brigadier-General. He marched the brigade back to the coast in April, and embarked at Santander
Santander, Cantabria
The port city of Santander is the capital of the autonomous community and historical region of Cantabria situated on the north coast of Spain. Located east of Gijón and west of Bilbao, the city has a population of 183,446 .-History:...
as part of the BAL's seaborne relief expedition to San Sebastian
San Sebastián
Donostia-San Sebastián is a city and municipality located in the north of Spain, in the coast of the Bay of Biscay and 20 km away from the French border. The city is the capital of Gipuzkoa, in the autonomous community of the Basque Country. The municipality’s population is 186,122 , and its...
. He led the centre column during the fierce action of 5 May, when the BAL broke through three lines of Carlist besiegers, and even his enemies recognised the courage he showed. Shaw had been hit by a spent ball, and another had struck his watch. He was awarded the Spanish Order of San Fernando.
On 31 May 1836 Shaw and his brigade again took a leading part in defending the BAL's lines around tha village of Alza against a fierce Carlist attack. On 11 July Shaw's brigade led a reconnaissance in force along the coast towards the French border, aiming to cut the Carlists off from the sea. While his battalions fought over a bridge, Shaw led a patrol right up to the walls of Fuenterrabia. He felt that he could have seized this last Carlist seaport by coup de main if he had been supported, but no reinforcements reached him, and the Legion withdrew. Shaw's letter to his brother describing this action was leaked to the Courier newspaper in London, which praised Shaw and denigrated the BAL's leadership. Evans accused Shaw of leaking the letter himself, with the result that Shaw resigned and returned to Britain.
Shaw was knighted
Knight Bachelor
The rank of Knight Bachelor is a part of the British honours system. It is the most basic rank of a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not as a member of one of the organised Orders of Chivalry...
by Queen Victoria in 1838.
Police career
In 1839, during ChartistChartism
Chartism was a movement for political and social reform in the United Kingdom during the mid-19th century, between 1838 and 1859. It takes its name from the People's Charter of 1838. Chartism was possibly the first mass working class labour movement in the world...
unrest in North West England, Shaw was appointed by the Government as the first Chief Commissioner of Police in Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
and Bolton
Bolton
Bolton is a town in Greater Manchester, in the North West of England. Close to the West Pennine Moors, it is north west of the city of Manchester. Bolton is surrounded by several smaller towns and villages which together form the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, of which Bolton is the...
. He endeavoured to create a neutral force that was independent both of the mill-owners (who dominated the municipal authorities) and of the trade unionists and Chartists. In 1841 he led the hunt for the 'Ashton Murderers'. During the Anti-Corn Law Riots
Anti-Corn Law League
The Anti-Corn Law League was in effect the resumption of the Anti-Corn Law Association, which had been created in London in 1836 but did not obtain widespread popularity. The Anti-Corn Law League was founded in Manchester in 1838...
and Plug Plot Riots in the summer of 1842, Shaw was forced to call on military assistance. At one point he personally led a charge by a troop of dragoons against a mob of rioters. Shaw had considerable sympathy for the Chartists and the poor of Manchester, and was removed from his post when the Manchester municipal authorities took over responsibility for the Borough Police on 1 October 1842.
Later life
Shaw married, in 1841, Louisa Hannah, only daughter of Major Martin Curry of the 67th Foot, and they had a son, Charles Martin Shaw. On 10 May 1844 he transferred from half-pay into the 73rd Foot in order to sell his commission and retire from the army. However, he continued to take an interest in military affairs, writing to British newspapers and politicians from the Continent, where he resided. His pet subjects included the Minie RifleMinié rifle
The Minié rifle was an important rifle in the 19th century, developed in 1849 following the invention of the Minié ball in 1847 by the French Army captains Claude-Étienne Minié of the Chasseurs d'Orléans and Henri-Gustave Delvigne. The rifle was designed to allow rapid muzzle loading of rifles, an...
, soldiers' welfare, and coastal defence. His articles for the Caledonian Mercury during the invasion scare of 1859 make his points by describing a mythical attack on the port of Leith, somewhat in the style of Chesney's later The Battle of Dorking or Swinton's The Defence of Duffer's Drift. In these he advocated the used of 'rifle batteries' consisting of 12-20 rifle barrels that could be operated by one or two men, using the analogy of mechanical looms that did the work of many weavers. These 'rifle batteries' seem to prefigure the later Nordenfeldt gun.
In later life Shaw lived at Bad Homberg, Germany, where he died in February 1871. As a holder of the Waterloo Medal he was buried with military honours, his funeral attended by French and Prussian officers.
Personality and appearance
During the siege of Oporto, a British resident described Shaw as ‘A fervid Liberal of the old CovenanterCovenanter
The Covenanters were a Scottish Presbyterian movement that played an important part in the history of Scotland, and to a lesser extent in that of England and Ireland, during the 17th century...
type ... fired by Dom Pedro’s anti-absolutist crusades’. A British volunteer was amused by the Portuguese soldiers' long beards, but Shaw’s ‘quite eclipsed all of them, being of enormous length, and as fiery in appearance as the tail of a comet’. No likeness of Shaw appears to have survived.