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Mjr. Donald Patrick Shaw DSO.
British Army 6th Btn. Dorsetshire Regiment
from:Westminster School
Donald Patrick Shaw, born 29th August at Melcombe Regis, was the eldest son of Dr A E Shaw, headmaster of Lord Williams’s School, Thame, from 1899 to 1920. Educated at that school, where he was head boy for his last two years, and at Balliol College Oxford, where he gained an Honours degree in history, he taught at Weymouth and Westminster schools before enlisting, in 1914, in the Dorsetshire Regiment.
He was seriously wounded in the neck in 1915 while serving in France and nearly drowned when the hospital ship Anglia was mined off Dover in the Channel. He returned to France, promoted to Major and was awarded the DSO in 1918 for gallantry in the attack across Ancre. In 1918-1919 he commanded the 6th Battalion of the Dorsets as Lieut. Colonel, leading them in the Victory Parade. In 1919 he returned to Westminster School where he became a housemaster and commanded the Officer Training Corps. He died of his war wounds in 1924 and was buried on 14th of October with full military honours. His coffin was borne on a six-horse gun-carriage to Westminster Abbey and at his grave in Norwood cemetery the Last Post was sounded by soldiers of the Grenadier Guards.
