He did not remain long idle. On 17 July he was gazetted a brigadier-general to command a Scottish brigade of the auxiliary legion then being raised in England by Sir George de Lacy Evans [q. v.] for service in Spain against the Carlists, and at once went to Glasgow to assist in raising recruits. He went to Spain in September, landing on the 10th at Santander and marching with some sixteen hundred men, whom he brought out with him, to Portugalette. Here he was disappointed to find that his rank would only be that of colonel in command of a brigade of two regiments. In February 1836 he was given command of a brigade of three fine Irish regiments, but not the rank of brigadier-general. Until April 1836 he was quartered principally at Vittoria or in its neighbourhood. On 13 April he marched for San Sebastian, embarking at Santander and arriving on the 24th at San Sebastian, which was then besieged by Don Carlos. On 5 May an attack was made on the Carlist position on the heights above San Sebastian, and after a protracted fight the day was won. Shaw was struck by a spent ball, and another struck his watch. He was now made a brigadier-general and decorated with the third class of the order of San Fernando. On 31 May Shaw repulsed an attack on his lines with great success. At the end of August, owing to a misunderstanding with Evans, Shaw sent in his resignation, which Evans accepted, regretting that the legion thereby lost the services of so efficient, gallant, and zealous an officer.
Shaw arrived in England at the end of September 1836, and for a time resided at Richmond, Surrey. In September 1839 he was appointed chief commissioner of police at Manchester, a post which he held until September 1842. During the latter part of his life he lived at Homburg-von-der-Hohe, where he died in February 1871, and was buried with military honours.
Shaw married, in 1841, Louisa Hannah, only daughter of Major Martin Curry of the 67th regiment, by whom he had a son Charles Martin, who with his mother survived him. Shaw published his rambling and egotistical ‘Personal Memoirs and Correspondence. … Comprising a Narrative of the War for Constitutional Liberty in Portugal and in Spain from its Commencement in 1831 to the Dissolution of the British Legion in 1837,’ 2 vols. 8vo, London, 1837.
[Times, 28 Feb. 1871; Annual Register, 1871; Shaw's Personal Memoirs, 1837; Badcock's Journal in Spain and Portugal, 1832–4; Bacon's Six Years in Biscay, 1830–7; Duncan's English in Spain, 1834–40; A Concise Review of the Campaigns of the British Legion in Spain, by Colonel J. H. Humfrey, with plan, London, 8vo, 1838.]
SHAW, CUTHBERT (1739–1771), poet, the son of a shoemaker of the same names, was born at Ravensworth, near Richmond in Yorkshire, early in 1739. A younger brother, John, was baptised at the parish church of Kirby Hill on 6 Sept. 1741. After schooling at Kirby Hill and Scorton, both near Richmond, he proceeded usher, first at Scorton and then at Darlington grammar school. There he published his first poem, ‘Liberty,’ inscribed to the Earl of Darlington (1756, 4to). Meeting with scant appreciation in Yorkshire, he joined a company of comedians in the eastern counties, and was in 1760 at Bury St. Edmunds, where he published, under the pseudonym of W. Seymour, ‘Odes on the Four Seasons.’ In 1760, under the name of Smith, he appeared in Foote's comedy of ‘The Minor,’ but he had nothing to recommend him as an actor save his good looks, which were prematurely dulled by his excesses. On 19 Oct. 1761 he was Osman in ‘Zara’ at Covent Garden, and on 14 May 1762 Pierre in ‘Venice Preserved,’ for his own benefit. This seems to have been his last appearance on the stage. He was attracted to satire by the success of Churchill, whom he assaulted with vigour, along with Lloyd, Colman, and Shirley, in ‘The Four Farthing Candles’ (London, 1762, 4to); this was followed by his more ambitious ‘The Race. By Mercurius Spur, esq.’ (1766, 4to), in which the living poets are made to contend for pre-eminence in fame by running. The portrait of Johnson in this poem is the best thing that Shaw wrote (republished in ‘The Repository,’ 1790, ii. 227; and quoted in Boswell's ‘Johnson,’ ed. Hill, ii. 31). Shaw now descended to puff a quack medicine, the ‘Beaume de Vie,’ in the proprietorship of which he was made a partner. On this he married, and was next, for a short time, tutor to the young Philip Stanhope (afterwards fifth earl of Chesterfield) in succession to the notorious Dr. William Dodd [q. v.] His young wife died in 1768, and he published a ‘Monody to the Memory of a Young Lady who died in Childbed, with a poetical dedication to Lord Lyttelton,’ which caught the taste of the day, and of which a fourth edition appeared (London, 1779, 4to). Next year he found utterance in ‘Corruption, a Satire,’ inscribed to Richard Grenville, earl Temple, and subsequently (1770) in ‘An Elegy on the Death of Charles Yorke, the Lord Chancellor,’ which was generally suspected to have been suppressed on the family paying a sum of money to the author.
