Yorkshire Chess History

 

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Arthur Barry Shaw

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Sheffield Sub-Site

 

Born:

Sep/Oct 1876, Athabasca, Alberta, Canada

Baptised:

 

Died:

29/07/1921, Leeds

Buried:

02/08/1921, Sheffield

 

Identity of the Chess-Player

 

Identifying the chess-playing “A. B. Shaw” is made possible to references to him as an organiser in which he is variously given the home address of 3 Winco Road, and the work address of the Duke of Norfolk’s estate office.

 

Non-Chess Life

 

Arthur Barry Shaw’s paternal grandparents were Joseph Shaw (1816/17, Bristol) and Mary Shaw (1822/23, Trysull, Staffs., 5 miles SW of Wolverhampton), who had at least the following two children, both born in Sheffield:

 

Arthur John Richards Shaw

born 1850

Fanny Shaw

born 1855/56,

 

The 1871 census found the family of four, and two boarders, living at 60 [somewhere], Sheffield.  Father Joseph, and son Arthur were hatters.

 

Arthur John Richards Shaw married Jane Barry (born 1848/49, Calais, France) in the Camberwell area, in 1874.  This couple had at least the following six children:

 

Arthur Barry Shaw

born Sep/Oct 1876,  Athabasca, Alberta, Canada

Pattie Shaw

born 1876/77, Sheffield

Nellie Shaw

born 1881/82, Sheffield

Constance Shaw

born 1883/84, Sheffield

Jennie Shaw

born 1885/86, Sheffield

Elsie Shaw

born 1886/87, Sheffield

 

The places of birth show that at some time from 1874 to 1876, Arthur senior and Jane must have gone for a brief stay in Canada, returning to Sheffield by 1877.  The reason for the trip to Canada might be explained by either of two circumstances: that Arthur switched from being a hatter to being a cleric (and got posted to Canada for a while), or that Jane’s parents may have lived in Canada, perhaps being French-Canadian.  Arthur junior’s place of birth is always later given as Canada.

 

The 1879 Sheffield directory listed the Rev. Arthur J. R. Shaw as curate of Trinity Church, Wicker, with his home at Houghton Place, 4 Andover Street, Sheffield.

 

The 1881 census found the family now at 175 Nottingham Street, in the Burngreave area of Sheffield.  Besides parents Arthur (senior) and Jane (a British subject), two children Arthur and Pattie, there were Arthur senior’s mother (apparently married but not widowed) and sister Fanny living with there.

 

The 1883 and 1884 Sheffield directories continued to list the Rev. Arthur J. R. Shaw as curate of Trinity Church, Wicker, with his home at 175 Nottingham Street, but within four years the Rev. Shaw had changed jobs.  The 1888 directory thus found the Rev. Shaw as curate of Newhall, living at 3 Winco Road, Grimesthorpe, Sheffield.

 

The 1891 census found parents Arthur and Jane, the above six children, and a servant, living at 3 Winco Road, Grimesthorpe, Sheffield.  Arthur senior was a clerk in holy orders, of unspecified denomination, while Arthur junior, Pattie and Nellie were scholars.

 

Arthur John Richards Shaw, our man’s father, died in 1896, aged only 46.

 

Our man and his mother seem elusive in the 1901 census, but White’s Sheffield directory of 1901 gives Mrs. Jane Shaw at 3 Winco Road, Grimesthorpe, Sheffield, while Arthur’s address is given the same address in chess records from 1901.

 

The 1902 Sheffield directory found the Shaws had left 3 Winco Road, and the 1906 directory listed Mrs. Jane Shaw (presumably our man’s mother) at 56 Manners Street.  Meanwhile Sheffield directories from 1902 to 1911 listed Arthur Shaw, clerk, living at 236 Crickett Inn Road, Sheffield.

 

In 1907, Arthur Barry Shaw married Jane Ellen Moxon (born 1876/77, Warrington, Lancs.), in Sheffield.  The couple had at least one child, Reginald Barry Shaw, born 1909/10, in Sheffield.

 

The 1911 census found Arthur and Jane living with son Reginald at 236 Cricket Inn Road, Sheffield.  Arthur was described as a land agent’s clerk. Arthur’s address in other sources show him to have been employed at the Duke of Norfolk’s estate office in Sheffield.

 

The Sheffield directories then create some confusion by listing both an Arthur Shaw and a Barry Shaw.  The directories of 1912 and 1913 didn’t list 236 Crickett Inn Road, but listed Arthur Shaw, clerk, at Red House, White’s Lane, which is a turning off Crickett Inn Road.  The 1915 and 1916 directories then listed both Arthur Shaw, clerk, Red House, White’s Lane, and Barry Shaw, householder, 236 Crickett Inn Road.  This suggests Arthur Barry Shaw moved from 236 Crickett Inn Road to the Red House, White’s Lane, and then a relative called Barry moved into 236 Crickett Inn Road.

 

By the time of his death, Arthur Barry Shaw’s address was given as the Red House, White’s Lane, Cricket Inn Road, Sheffield.

 

Death

 

Arthur appears to have been taken seriously ill, probably in 1921, as he died on 29/07/1921, aged only 47, at a hospital in Leeds, described variously as the Ministry of Pensions Hospital, and Beckett’s Military Hospital, Leeds.

 

He was buried on 03/08/1946, at City Road Cemetery, Sheffield.  The grave plot has no evident headstone or other stonework above ground, being level and grassed over.

 

Although both he and his father died in their mid to late 40s, it looks rather as though his mother lived to the age of 94, as a Jane Shaw died in Sheffield in 1943, at the age of 94.

 

Arthur’s wife, Jane Ellen Shaw, died in 1946, at 260 Bradway Road; Sheffield, and was buried in the same grave as her husband.

 

Chess

 

He played for West End in the mid-1890s, in the early years of the Sheffield League.

 

By 1899-00 he was playing on lower boards for Sheffield in the Woodhouse Cup.

 

By that time he was a member of the YMCA Chess Club.

 

He played for Yorkshire in the 1899-00 friendly correspondence match against Kent.

 

Thereafter he appeared frequently in Sheffield’s Woodhouse Cup team, but appears to have dropped out by 1905-06, perhaps because he was courting!

 

He was secretary of the Sheffield & District Chess Association over the period 1901 to 1903, and possibly before and/or after that period.

 

 

Created

17/08/2014

Copyright © 2014 Stephen John Mann

Census information is copyright of The National Archive, see UK Census Information

Last Updated

17/08/2014