Birth

Enlistment Information

Military Service

Embarkation Information

Military Awards

Death

Biographical Notes

Thomas Shaw was born on 29 April 1879 at Kelso, the son of Lewis (Louis) and Catherine (née Fleming) Shaw, who had married in Scotland in 1869. By at least 1875 they had settled in New Zealand, their daughter Anne being born in New Zealand in that year and Lewis in 1877 at Port Chalmers. An article in the Otago Witness of 27 November 1880 reads thus; “Mr Louis Shaw, the Kelso blacksmith, has been compelled to pull down his shop wowing to its proximity to the railway, and Messrs M’Alister and Turnbull are at present erecting for him a more commodious building on a better site. Mr Shaw is undoubtedly the pioneer Kelsoite.” He had commenced as a blacksmith at Tapanui and then at Kelso in about 1879, the year Thomas was born. Mr Lewis Shaw died suddenly on 25 August 1889, leaving a widow and a young family. Six sons and three daughters are known to have been born to Lewis and Catherine. He was “highly esteemed as a man of sterling character by all who knew him.”

Thomas Shaw was a labourer for Mr R. H. Rhodes, Bluescliffs, when he enlisted, nominating his mother, Mrs C. Shaw, Kelso, as next-of-kin. Private Shaw embarked with the 16th Reinforcements on 19 August 1916. While he was overseas, his youngest sister, Margaret Shaw, drowned at Kelso while trying to save a young girl. Mrs Catherine Smith, who “reared a large family, and was a woman greatly respected by all who knew her”, died on 29 April 1918. It was 19 May 1919 when Private Thomas Shaw arrived home by the “Carpentaria.

Thomas Shaw appears to have have spent his post-war years at Invercargill, and may have married Elizabeth White in 1928. He died on 8 December 1950 at Invercargill, aged 71 years, and was buried in the Eastern Cemetery there. James Shaw, the next brother to Thomas, also served in World War. He returned home and was discharged in 1919 on account of illness contracted on Active Service. He too named his mother as next-of-kin, this being changedto his sister Catherine after his mother’s death. James died in 1928 at Hawera.

Sources

Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database [24 February 2021]; NZ BDM Indexes (Department of Internal Affairs) [25February 2021]; Eastern Cemetery, Invercargill, headstone image (Invercargill City Council) [24 February 2021]; Otago Witness, 29 August 1889, 10 January 1917, 8 May 1918 (Papers Past) [27 February 2021]

External Links

• Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph record
• Military personnel file

Related Documents

No documents available. 

Researched and Written by

Teresa Scott, SC branch NZSG

Currently Assigned to

Not assigned.