Accountant

Family :

Service Life:

Campaigns:

• The Second Anglo-Boer War 1899-1902, South Africa.
• The First World War 1914-1918, World-wide.

31 July - 10 November 1917. By the summer of 1917 the British Army was able for the first time to fight on its chosen ground on its terms. Having secured the southern ridges of Ypres at Messines in June, the main attack started on 31st July 1917 accompanied by what seemed like incessant heavy rain, which coupled with the artillery barrages conspired to turn much of the battlefield into a bog. Initial failure prompted changes in the high command and a strategy evolved to take the ring of ridges running across the Ypres salient in a series of 'bite and hold' operations, finally culminating in the capture of the most easterly ridge on which sat the infamous village of Passchendaele. The Official History carries the footnote ?The clerk power to investigate the exact losses was not available? but estimates of British casualties range from the official figure of 244,000 to almost 400,000. Within five months the Germans pushed the British back to the starting line, which was where they had been since May 1915.

Detail :

Corporal Frederick Clement SHAW enlisted 26 Feb 1916. He was killed during the Battle of Polygon Wood and was originally buried near Black Watch Corner, 1700yrds SE of Westeheok, ref 28NE J15, B 1,9. His body was not recovered. He was the Worshipful Master of his lodge, one of 12 who fell whilst in holding that office in their respective lodges. Typically demonstrating the equality of freemasonry they ranged in rank from Private to Lt Colonel. In the days leading up to 26 September 1917 the men of the Fifth Australian Division prepared for their first major battle in Belgium. During the night of 25-26 September the men of the assaulting battalions reached taped lines laid across the south-western third of the blasted tree stumps of Polygon Wood. At this point it was vital not to alert the watching Germans by unusual noise or the lighting of cigarettes which would bring down an enemy artillery barrage. At 5.50 am on 26 September the guns opened up in front of the Australian infantry who immediately moved forward behind its protecting wall of shells. If one had been on the Butte, where the Fifth Division Memorial now stands, the sound of battle would have been overpowering. Captain Alexander Ellis, wrote a vivid description of the scene: "Our artillery opened in a single magnificent crash and thousands of shells screamed through the air and burst in a long, straight line of flame and destruction about 200 yards [180 metres] ahead of the waiting infantry - the 4,000 men of the six attacking battalions dashed forward at a run. Somewhere behind the line of destruction lay their victims, shuddering in their pill-boxes, staggered by the sudden commotion, dazed by the concussion of the shells - then, slowly, very slowly it [the barrage] crept forward. A long line of skirmishers disengaged itself from the dense mass of men and followed the advancing screen of shells - Above their heads thousands of machine gun bullets cut the air as they whistled shrilly past on their destined way, and the strident din of many Vickers guns throbbed through the troubled morning air. But these were but the tinkling wood-wind notes in the hell's orchestra that played about them. For the deafening crash of the rapid firing 18-pounders, the hoarser roar of the scores of heavy guns behind them and the stupefying concussion of shrapnel and high explosive shells in the barrage in front were by now all mingled in the hideous rhythmical clamour of the perfect drum-fire barrage. Thus, at 5.50 a.m. on the 26 September 1917, was the Division launched into the Battle of Polygon Wood". Captain Alexander Ellis, The Story of the Fifth Australian Division, London, 1919, pp.244-5 The infantry's main obstacles on the battlefield were the dozens of German concrete pill-boxes which protected the enemy machine gunners. They had to get to the pill-boxes just as the barrage lifted from them and the occupants were still dazed by explosions. At some pill-boxes there was resistance but many German soldiers surrendered when they found themselves so rapidly surrounded. The Butte itself was soon rushed and was found to be full of German dugouts. The entrances were blocked and bombers with grenades worked their way through the underground positions finally pushing the occupants into surrender. German planes came over and machine gunned the Butte area while enemy artillery began pounding the rear areas behind the Australian advance causing many casualties. At 7.30 am another protective barrage began and the Australians pushed on to their final objective for the day a few hundred metres beyond Polygon Wood. By 8 am the required ground had been gained and the advance was over. During the rest of the day German counter attacks came to nothing and the Battle of Polygon Wood was declared a great success for the AIF.

Masonic :

Listed as a 31 year old Cashier from Brisbane at the time of his initiation in 1909. The contribution register shows that he "Died on War Service."
Worshipful Master

Source :

The project globally acknowledges the following as sources of information for research across the whole database:

• The Commonwealth War Graves Commission
• The (UK) National Archives
• Ancestry.co.uk - Genealogy, Family Trees & Family History online
• ugle.org.uk - The records of the United Grand Lodge of England including the Library and Museum of Freemasonry

Additional Source:

• Founder Researchers : Paul Masters & Mike McCarthy
• Researcher : Bruce Littley