Early Days

William Shaw was living with his uncle Joseph, aunt Mary and their daughter Emily in 1891. At that time they were at 26 Shepherd Street in Stockton-on-Tees. Joseph Shaw was a labourer at a brass foundry and appears to have moved to Teesside from Derbyshire between 1874 and 1881, living for a while en route in Manchester where Emily was born.

It is said that William ran away from home to join the army at 14 and went to the second Boer War (1899-1902), receiving a medal. Allegedly he lied about his age as he was not old enough to qualify.

William does not appear to be in the 1901 census (which supports the Boer War story, click   for more information). By then his surrogate parents Joseph and Mary Shaw were living in Normanby together with their daughter Emily who had married William H Drury from Lincoln.

Some years later William signed up to become a regular soldier in the Yorkshire Regiment. When he married in 1913 he was using the name William Herlingshaw but he is listed (by somebody else) in the 1911 census with the name William Shaw. So it is not clear when he changed his name to Herlingshaw. It might be that the Shaw name was used in the census return by the occupants of the house he was lodging at because Joseph and Mary Shaw lived next door.

Photographs of him in uniform from that period do not show a Boer War medal ribbon. That might be because he was not there, or if he was, he used a different name.

The contents of this site are copyright © 2021, Ken Herlingshaw