Frederick Shaw (British Army officer)

Lieutenant General Sir Frederick Charles Shaw KCB, PC (1861–1942) 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.

Military career

Shaw was commissioned into the Sherwood Foresters in 1882.^[1] He saw service in the Anglo-Egyptian War in 1882.^[1]

He served during the Second Boer War as a Brigade Major, then as Deputy Assistant Adjutant-General and then as Assistant Adjutant-General.^[1] In 1907 he was made Commanding Officer of 2nd Battalion the Sherwood Foresters.^[1]

He served in World War I initially as Commander of 9th Infantry Brigade in which role he deployed to France.^[1] He was wounded by a shell that hit his Headquarters on 12 November 1914.^[1] After his recovery, in 1915, he was appointed Commander of the 29th Division.^[1] He then became Director of Home Defence and subsequently Chief of the General Staff for Home Forces.^[1]

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.^[2] Following direct intervention from London, the "Black and Tans" and Auxiliary Division of the Constabulary were introduced in order to achieve a decisive result. Ironically this intervention preceded a purge of the Irish administration at Dublin Castle during which Shaw himself was replaced.^[3]

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