American-born English socialite
Robert Gould Shaw III
(18 August 1898 ? 10 July 1970) was an American-born English socialite. He was the only child of
Nancy Witcher Langhorne
and
Robert Gould Shaw II
, a landowner and socialite. After his parents' divorce in 1903, he moved to England with his mother
Nancy
, who later married
Waldorf Astor, 2nd Viscount Astor
and became the first woman in Britain to take her seat as a member of parliament.
[1]
Life
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]
Robert Gould Shaw III was born on 18 August 1898 in
Beverly, Massachusetts
. Through his father, he was a grandson of investor
Quincy Adams Shaw
and cousin of Civil War Union casualty Colonel
Robert Gould Shaw
. His maternal grandparents were railroad millionaire
Chiswell Dabney Langhorne
and Nancy Witcher (nee Keene) Langhorne.
[2]
[3]
Robert Gould Shaw III's father had a limited role in his life while he had a close, if occasionally difficult, relationship with his mother.
[4]
His parents divorced in 1903, and in 1904 he moved to England with his mother Nancy where she married
Waldorf Astor, 2nd Viscount Astor
in 1906, with whom she had five more children, including
William Astor, 3rd Viscount Astor
.
[5]
In 1919, she was the first woman to take her seat as Member of Parliament and served as MP for Plymouth until 1945.
[1]
After moving to England, Robert Gould Shaw III was educated at
Shrewsbury School
. He was commissioned from the
Royal Military College
into the
Royal Horse Guards
as a second lieutenant on 21 December 1917,
[6]
and was transferred to the
Guards Machine Gun Regiment
on 12 August 1918.
[7]
He ceased to be employed with that regiment on 31 January 1919,
[8]
and was promoted to lieutenant in the Royal Horse Guards on 21 June 1919.
[9]
On 9 March 1920 he was transferred to the Royal Horse Guards' Reserve of Officers,
[10]
but he rejoined the regular establishment of the regiment on 24 September 1921.
[11]
However, his increasing alcoholism caused difficulty,
[12]
and he retired, still in the rank of lieutenant, on 17 July 1929.
[13]
Troubles and death
[
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]
Robert Gould Shaw III had long had suicidal tendencies and his life mostly went adrift from an early point. In 1931, he was imprisoned for six months for
homosexual
offences,
[14]
[15]
and his name was removed from the Army List on 17 July 1931.
[16]
His alcoholism, his mother's death, and the death of his half-brother William in 1966 may have increased his suicidal tendencies.
[17]
He killed himself on 10 July 1970. His ashes are buried in the Octagon Temple, the estate chapel of
Cliveden
.
John Singer Sargent
did a 1923 charcoal portrait of Shaw in his military uniform. His mother gave the portrait to
Alfred E. Goodey
, art collector and Shaw's partner, and it was later sold in England in 2011 for £23,000.
[18]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
"Women in the House of Commons"
.
UK Parliament
. Retrieved
1 December
2019
.
- ^
Marlowe, Derek;
Nancy Astor: The Lady from Virginia
; Dell Publishing (1982);
ISBN
978-0440162650
- ^
Fox, James (2001).
Five Sisters: The Langhornes of Virginia
.
Simon and Schuster
. p. 494.
ISBN
9780743217002
. Retrieved
1 March
2018
.
- ^
Cockett, Richard (1991).
David Astor and "The Observer"
. Andre Deutsch. p. 4.
ISBN
9780233987354
. Retrieved
1 March
2018
.
- ^
Wrigley, Chris (2002).
Winston Churchill: A Biographical Companion
. ABC-CLIO. p. 28.
ISBN
9780874369908
. Retrieved
1 March
2018
.
- ^
"No. 30438"
.
The London Gazette
(3rd supplement). 20 December 1917. p. 13335.
- ^
"No. 30964"
.
The London Gazette
(6th supplement). 21 October 1918. p. 12459.
- ^
"No. 31211"
.
The London Gazette
(5th supplement). 4 March 1919. p. 3005.
- ^
"No. 31515"
.
The London Gazette
(5th supplement). 21 August 1919. p. 10618.
- ^
"No. 31815"
.
The London Gazette
(6th supplement). 8 March 1920. p. 2891.
- ^
"No. 32779"
.
The London Gazette
. 22 December 1922. p. 9034.
- ^
Summers, Anthony; Dorril, Stephen (2014).
The Secret Worlds of Stephen Ward: Sex, Scandal, and Deadly Secrets in the Profumo Affair
. Open Road Media. p. 57.
ISBN
9781480466982
. Retrieved
1 March
2018
.
- ^
"No. 33517"
.
The London Gazette
. 16 July 1929. p. 4702.
- ^
Shaw, Bernard; Astor, Viscountess Nancy Witcher Langhorne Astor (2005).
Bernard Shaw and Nancy Astor
.
University of Toronto Press
. pp.
31
-33.
ISBN
9780802037527
. Retrieved
1 March
2018
.
- ^
Larson, Gale K. (2001).
Shaw: The Annual Bernard Shaw Studies. Vol. 21
.
Penn State Press
. pp. 184?185.
ISBN
0271021276
. Retrieved
1 March
2018
.
- ^
"No. 33746"
.
The London Gazette
. 21 August 1931. p. 5471.
- ^
"Robert Gould Shaw III Nancy Astor's Son"
.
plymlgbtarchive.org
. Plymouth LGBT Archive. 3 September 2011
. Retrieved
1 March
2018
.
- ^
"A treasure trove"
.
New York Social Diary
. 20 January 2012
. Retrieved
1 March
2018
.
External links
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]