Colonel Shaw

A carte-de-visite portrait of Colonel Michael Maxwell Shaw (1803-1890), a retired Indian army officer who became a prominent figure in the British temperance movement. He frequently wrote letters to the press in support of his cause.

An inked inscription verso in a fine period hand reads: ‘Colonel Shaw preaching on the Street. His portable frame and Roll. Also a chair which was given to him by the Superior of St Catherine’s Mount Sinai.'

‘On Sabbath last Colonel Shaw, of Ayr, conducted the services in Hamilton Street Independent Church, Saltcoats. In the evening he gave a temperance discourse on the question “What does the Bible say about wine.” The audience was respectable’ (Ardrossan and Saltcoats Herald , 18 August 1866).

From the website of the Royal Society of Tasmania: ‘Colonel Shaw was one of the retired Indian officers who were attracted to Tasmania by Colonel Crawfords’s immigration scheme put forward in 1865. He settled on the NW coast at ‘Dean’s Point.’’

'We have received from our old friend Col. Michael Maxwell Shaw, now resident in Tasmania, a parcel of leaflets issued by him in the interests of teetotalism and of the religious views he advocates' (Ayr Advertiser, 14 November 1889).

He died, aged 87, in Tasmania on 9 January 1890.

‘DEATH OF COL. SHAW — We take the following from the Launceston Examiner, Tasmania, of 10th January:— Our Leven correspondent telegraphs that Colonel Michael Maxwell Shaw died somewhat suddenly yesterday at his residence, Molenda Lodge, Castra Road, at the ripe age of 87 years. He had been ailing for about six weeks, and got up yesterday morning as usual, but about eight o’clock was taken suddenly ill, and died before his son, Mr Thos. Shaw, who was living next door, arrived. Colonel Shaw was one of the retired Indian officers who were attracted to Tasmania by Colonel Crawford’s immigration scheme put forward in 1865, and settled on the NW Coast, and until his health failed some years ago he was an active correspondent to the press at home as well as in this colony, and a warm supporter of the temperance cause. Before coming to this colony he endeavoured to improve on Col. Crawford’s scheme by a series of letters to the English religious journal, the Christian News, advocating that the Evangelical union should form an association to secure land and form a settlement and township in the Tasmanian bush from its own adherents. The letters were subsequently re-printed in pamphlet form, but the project was never taken up. Colonel Shaw leaves one son and a daughter, both of whom are married and reside in the district. Colonel Shaw will be remembered by hundreds of friends of Ayr where he resided for a considerable time and where he did good work in the temperance cause (Irvine Herald, 28 February 1890).

Photographed by Hugh Murdoch of Ayr.