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Shaw
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Sidgwick

abroad. As a swordsman he was equally expert, and was, in fact, skilled in the use of most modern weapons of offence and defence. He was now six feet and half an inch in height, and so magnificently developed that he sat as a model to Haydon the sculptor. One day, when near Portman Square, three hulking fellows taunted Shaw with being a stay-at-home soldier. He promptly knocked them down. They sprang to their feet and attacked him, but in a few minutes were compelled to seek safety in flight. In 1812 Shaw was persuaded to enter the prize ring, and on 12 July of that year defeated at Coombe-Warren a man named Burrows. Early in 1815 he issued a challenge to fight any man in England, and on 15 April, at Hounslow Heath, fought his second battle in the prize ring, defeating Edward Painter [q. v.] in twenty-eight minutes. He was now spoken of as the future champion, but before Tom Cribb [q. v.] had time to accept his challenge the 2nd lifeguards were ordered to the continent. Shaw's civilian admirers immediately offered to purchase his discharge, but he declined to entertain the idea. Early in the morning of 18 June, the day on which Waterloo was fought, Corporal Shaw was sent out in command of a foraging party, but hurried back with his men in time to take part in the first charge. A cuirassier rode straight at Shaw, who calmly parried the thrust, and with one terrific stroke, the first blow he had dealt in real warfare, cut through the Frenchman's helmet and skull down to the chin. Shaw then rode at an eagle-bearer, killed him, and seized the eagle. He relinquished it, however, while cutting his way through the foes who immediately surrounded him. Although wounded, he took part in several other charges, exhibiting on each occasion his strength and marvellous dexterity with the sword. In the last charge but one made by the 2nd lifeguards, Shaw became separated from his comrades, and was quickly surrounded by the enemy. He fought desperately and killed nine of his opponents before his sword broke. Scorning surrender, he tore the helmet from his head, and, using it as a cestus, dealt some terrific blows before he fell to the ground, picked off by a cuirassier, who sat a little distance away, coolly firing his carbine.

After the battle was won Shaw struggled on in the track of his victorious countrymen, and at night a wounded lifeguardsman, lying on a dungheap, saw Shaw crawling towards him. 'Ah, my dear fellow, I'm done for!' Shaw whispered feebly, and lay down beside him. At daybreak he was found there dead.

[Nottingham Review, 30 Dec. 1859; Elaine's Rural Sports; Egan's Boxiana; Miles's Pugilistica; Creasy's Decisive Battles; Knollys's Deeds of Daring.]

H. C. M.


SIDGWICK, HENRY (1838–1899), philosopher, born at Skipton, Yorkshire, on 31 May 1838, was third (and second surviving) son of the Rev. William Sidgwick, head-master of Skipton grammar school, by his wife Mary (Crofts). The father died on 22 May 1841. Henry Sidgwick was sent to a school at Blackheath in 1849, and to Rugby in September 1852, where his mother took a house next year. Edward White Benson (afterwards Archbishop) [q. v. Suppl.], a cousin of the Sidgwicks, and then a master at Rugby, became an inmate of the household. He had a great influence upon Sidgwick, whose sister he afterwards married. The boy was 'bookish' and took no interest in football or cricket. His intellectual development was precocious, and his great ambition was to become a distinguished scholar like his cousin. Instead of standing for a scholarship at Balliol, he decided to enter Trinity College, Cambridge, of which Benson was a fellow. He left Rugby in 1855 as senior exhibitioner, and began residence at Cambridge in the October of that year. His career at college was brilliant. He won a Bell scholarship in 1856, the Craven scholarship in 1857, the Greek epigram in 1858, and was thirty-third wrangler, senior classic, and first chancellor's medallist in 1859. In 1857 he became a scholar, and in 1859 fellow and assistant-tutor, of his college. He had given the highest promise of future distinction in the field of classical scholarship. He was, however, already devoting himself to other aims. He had been led to philosophical studies during his undergraduate career. He had at the beginning of his second year joined the well-known 'Apostles' Society. Its purpose was to encourage the frank and full discussion of every possible question. Sidgwick, though one of the youngest men of the same university standing, showed a remarkable maturity of intellect, which enabled him to take a leading position in the society. The discussions also revealed to him the natural bent of his mind. He resolved to devote his life to the study of great philosophical problems. He and his friends were convinced of the necessity of a reconstruction of religious and social creeds in accordance with scientific methods. He was, like his contemporaries, greatly influenced by the teaching of J. S. Mill, then in the ascendant. He was repelled, however, by the agnostic tendencies of Mill's school, and could not find full satisfaction in