Charles Shaw

Brigadier-General Sir Charles Shaw (6 August 1794 – 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. Early years Charles Shaw was born in 1794 in Ayr, Scotland, the third son of county clerk Charles Shaw and Barbara Wright. Alexander Shaw and John Shaw the surgeons, and Patrick Shaw the legal writer, were his brothers. He was educated at Aberdeen and Edinburgh universities, destined for the law, but chose a military career instead. Military career British Army Shaw was commissioned into the 52nd (Oxfordshire) Light Infantry as an ensign 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 at the siege of Antwerp and subsequently on 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.