Pte. Joseph Shaw

Ann Shaw and William Marshall Shaw's brother Joseph had two sons and a daughter to his first wife and a daughter to his second wife. To date I know very little about these children. Being born around the end of the 19th century there is every possibility that the sons could have been involved in the Great War (WW1) where they might have been casualities. I have no clues that would tie them down and their names are too common to do a full check of the Scottish records. There is no guarantee that they all remained in Scotland anyway.

Margaret Scala sent me copies of some letters written by Isabella Main to her aunt in Australia. Isabella was the daughter of Janet Shaw, sister of Ann and William M. and my great grandfather James. One of the letters written in May 1916 tells that 'Uncle James Stark died a year ago and at the same time Uncle Joe Shaw had his youngest son killed at the war in France, they were both in the same week.' This son would be Joseph Shaw who was born in 1894.

A quick search on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website gives us a bit more information. I had looked at some of the entries on this site before but sadly there are so many names recorded there that it can take some time to find an entry that you 'know' should be there. At least the name of Joseph's father has been recorded with that of his son so he 'belongs' to someone. Too many of these records have no details of age or next of kin yet they all represent a real person who was dear to someone.

This website has a photograph of the cemetery at Gorre, Pas de Calais. Joseph's marker stone is directly in front of the Great Cross and is the fourth from the left.

Of passing interest; Isabella Main was by 1916 married to Robert Thomson and living at No. 38 Camden Street but whether her Aunt, Annie Shaw Browne, was still living/working at Nos. 11/13 at that time I don't know.