Addresses of welcome presented to Sir John Valentine W. Shaw

Scope and Content

Addresses of welcome presented to Shaw on his assumption of office as Governor of Trinidad.

Administrative / Biographical History

Sir John Valentine Wistar Shaw, CMG (1942) Kt Bach (1946), KCMG (1947), was born in 1894 and educated at Repton School, Derbyshire. After military service (1914-1919) he joined the Colonial Administrative Service in the Gold Coast working as Assistant District Commissioner (1921), District Commissioner (1925) and Assistant Secretary (1928). Shaw transferred to Palestine in 1935, working as Assistant Secretary (1935), Senior Assistant Secretary (1938) and Departmental Chief Secretary (1939). After a brief period working in Cyprus as Colonial Secretary (1940-1943), Shaw returned to Palestine as Chief Secretary (1943). He was acting Governor of Cyprus and High Commissioner for Palestine for several periods during 1940-1946, and was Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Trinidad (1947-1950).

Access Information

Bodleian reader's ticket required.

Note

Collection level description created by Marion Lowman, Bodleian Library of Commonwealth and African Studies at Rhodes House.

Administrative/Biographical History compiled with reference to A Biographical Dictionary of the British Colonial Service 1939-1966 by A.H.M. Kirk-Greene (1991).

Other Finding Aids

The library holds a card index of all manuscript collections in its reading room.

Listed as no. 787 in Manuscript Collections in Rhodes House Library Oxford, Accessions 1978-1994 (Oxford, Bodleian Library, 1996).

Conditions Governing Use

No reproduction or publication of personal papers without permission. Contact the library in the first instance.