Basil was born in Saltburn (also known as Saltburn - by - Sea and south east of Stockton - on - Tees, County Durham), England on 1 July 1905. After leaving school at fourteen years of age he spent three years, during January 1919 until December 1921, as a merchant marine cadet on ‘HMS Conway’ - an ancient wooden ship moored at Rockferry which functioned as the Merchant Navy School ship. He then served six months on ‘HMS Orion’ a Royal Navy World War One ‘dreadnought’ class battleship that by 1921 was being used simply as a gunnery training ship and then ‘HMS Wild Swan’, a 1918 destroyer which during those years was operating in the Mediterranean during the Greek- Turkish war. This experience earned him the rank of Midshipman in the RNR. It then appears that in about 1922/23 he joined the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company (which became the largest shipping group in the world by 1927 before collapsing in 1932) which took him back into the Merchant Marine as an Apprentice. Before leaving the Merchant Marine he had obtained his Second Mate Certificate. By 1926 he had moved to New Zealand to take up sheep farming - he was initially based on Bexley Station at Awakino in the North Island and it is noteworthy that in a letter he wrote in September that year to the NZ authorities he advised them of his desire to join the RNVR in New Zealand. Also, of the fact that, following his attaining the age of 21 years he had been made an Acting Sub Lieutenant, RNR in Britain. Because the RNVR in New Zealand only operated in Auckland he was unable to achieve his clear ambition to become an officer in the RNVR and had to put that aside for some years. Soon after he moved to the South Island where, by 1930, he was farming at ‘Albury Park’ Station at Albury (in the Mackenzie Country which is inland from Timaru) and winning prizes in Collie sheepdog competitions (‘The Press’ 31.10.30). He soon had become part of the established farming gentry being invited to be Best Man at several weddings for members of prominent farming families in the area (‘Evening Post’ 21.8.31 and ‘Temuka Leader’ 23.1.32) and in that year married Miss Amy Allison Ferrers Good, the daughter of a prominent Taranaki family. In 1933 he displayed his patriotism by providing a site for military training for the Canterbury Mounted Rifles at Albury Station (‘The Press’ 25.8.33). Mr. and Mrs. Shaw became a well-established part of the higher level of rural society in the South Island. He must have been successful in his farming for he is recorded travelling back to the UK and visiting the New Zealand High Commissioner in 1933 and then in 1934 travelling by ship to Sydney. In 1938 the family moved to a farm at Cape Kidnappers in the Hawkes Bay. As soon as the second World war broke out in September 1939 Basil Shaw immediately completed his ‘Registration for Active Service’. In early 1940, with Britain at war and New Zealand fully supporting the war effort the New Zealand government announced a Naval draft that would include “… 250 officers and men of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, 50 technical ratings specially entered for the Royal Navy, 80 Imperial ratings who have been replaced in the New Zealand naval forces by reserves, new entries and junior Royal Naval volunteer reserve ratings … In addition, the following 10 yachtsmen had been selected for commissions as sub-lieutenants in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve for service overseas …. [including] Basil Shaw (Napier) …” (‘The Press’ 22.4.40). Basil Shaw duly applied – as a “… Yachtsman Candidate for War Service In The Royal Navy (R.N.V.R.), applicable also to ex-mercantile marine officers …” and, no doubt under the latter category since he had never been a yachtsman, was promptly appointed a Probationary Temporary Sub Lieutenant, R.N.V.R. That same month the ’10 yachtsmen’ were on the ‘SS Niagara’ to Sydney and then the ‘SS Morella’ from Sydney to Singapore to take up their new duties in Malaya – half were to lose their lives during the War. New Zealand Navy records show him initially being attached to the Singapore shore base ‘HMS Sultan’ and then during 1940 on the ‘Insect class’ Yangste river gunboat ‘HMS Scarab’ which had been withdrawn that year from Hong Kong to Singapore. In 1941, he was again attached to ‘HMS Laburnum’ which was part of the naval shore base and then in January 1941 on to the ‘Fuh Wo’ before, at the last minute it appears during the Japanese invasion, he was placed in command of the “SS. Tandjong Pinang”. He had seniority of commissioning as a Lieutenant over the other two New Zealand officers, Gerard and Studholme, also on board (he was commissioned on 1.12.40 some seven months ahead of the other two plus he had formal training as an officer in the merchant marine and some small experience as a teenager in the Royal Navy. It seems that all the officers on the ‘SS Tandjong Pinang’ might have been pulled together at the last minute since both Gerard and Studholme are officially recorded as being on other ships when in fact they were on the ‘SS Tandjong Pinang’ at the time of departure from Singapore. Basil Shaw’s formal training was a positive aspect in his background in this situation and it seems likely that he would have taken on the duty as Captain with relish given his evident desire in the years before the War to become an Officer. We are left with the question as to whether he saw his role in command of the ‘SS Tandjong Pinang’ as a Royal Navy or mercantile marine responsibility. He survived the sinking, during which he bravely helped women and children off the ship and into the sea; and he was then on one of the tiny rafts with other crew and nurses. After a few days the overturned pram dinghy from the ship drifted by and Basil Shaw plus A/S Young plus a Malay seaman by the name of Ali Bin Rafi used this tiny craft to go for help. These three were seen on Banka Island about two days later by Lt. E. Leg. Partridge, MRNVR, from the ‘Fuh Wo’ (who presumably knew Basil Shaw from the brief time he also served on the ‘Fuh Wo’) who says he met Basil Shaw and two ratings “… one British and one Malaya …” on the 29th [typo in original record – it would have been the 20th] in the vicinity of the ‘UBAR ‘lighthouse [this actually appears to be the metal frame lighthouse at Tanjong Ular which is north along the coast from the stone construction Tanjung Kelian or Muntok light] and reported that Basil Shaw was in a weak state,” … I took this party back to the hut [at a tin mine called ‘Parit 9’] and did all I could for them, as they were suffering from exposure, having been some 36 hours without either food or water…. prior to this decision [ to leave ‘Parit 9’ on the evening of the 21st February] a party of Chinese bandits entered their hut and robbed them of money and valuables, during this operation Lieutenant SHAW was beaten up by the Chinese, but not badly. All inmates of the hut, including Lieutenant Shaw, 2 Naval ratings and 3 R.A.F. personnel were either sick or wounded …”. In fact after Basil Shaw and A/S Young had spent a night at either this hut at ‘Parit 9’ tin mine or the lighthouse [ there slightly conflicting records] are they departed the following day for Muntok [leaving Ali Bin Rafi at the lighthouse and suggesting he change his clothing] but on the way, it was now 21st February 1942 , they were captured by the Japanese and summarily shot “…at some distance away from the location where the Australian Sisters were massacred …”or “….three miles away from the lighthouse …” (Graves Registration & Enquiries, Far Eastern Land Forces, Singapore letter dated 22.12.48, and also testimonies of Sub. Lt. Partridge, MRNVR, of “HMS “Fu Wo”, the Malay Rating named Ali Bin Rafi and NZ Military Historical Society Inc); Ali Bin Rafi was told the next morning by a local Javanese who came to the lighthouse that “… on the previous morning the Japanese had captured and shot two British sailors about three miles away in the direction of Muntok …Bin Rafi immediately visited the spot and saw a Japanese sentry guarding the bodies of the two British sailors. He did not see the faces but recognized the shoulder badges of rank, clothes and stature of Lieutenant Shaw. When he returned to the spot the next day the bodies had been removed…” (Letter from Naval Secretary to Mrs. A.F. Shaw 22.8.46). From photos and Royal New Zealand records we know Lt. Basil Shaw was a big man – standing six feet one inch and weighing thirteen stone six pounds - which explains the reference to ‘stature’. A/S Richardson presumed them to either have been killed by the Japanese or died from wounds and sickness (A/S Richardson testimony). Post war search efforts in 1948 resulted in the remains of Lt. Shaw and A/S Young - together with the remnants of a scrap of paper with the name of crew members Baird, Hissey and Archer of the ‘SS Tanjong Pinang’ on it- being disinterred from their informal grave near Muntok lighthouse ( Graves Registration & Enquiries , Far East Land Forces 22.12.48), but unfortunately the Graves Party could not distinguish between the remains of the two men and as a result their bodies are now resting in one grave at Kranji Cemetery ( Plot 32, Row E, Grave 20) in Singapore with the inscription of them as an ‘Unknown Allied Seaman’. Correspondence between the Graves Registration unit of Far East Land Forces and the Royal New Zealand Navy in 1949 explains that “… after thorough investigations, it would appear that a case would have existed for the marking of [the Kranji] grave as that of ‘Lt B. Shaw RNZNVR and Unknown British seaman’ but for the fact that was not possible to determine the number of persons from the remains… ” so the Kranji grave was simply marked as ‘Unknown Allied Seaman’. Mrs. Shaw received correspondence from comrades of Basil Shaw - plus official explanations - which described much of the story of her husband’s bravery in the line of duty and his ultimate death on Banka Island at the hands of a company of Japanese troops from the 229th Regiment of the Imperial Japanese Army who had a terrible track record of war crimes in both Hong Kong during Xmas 1941 and then on Banka Island. [Michael Pether - New Zealanders who died in Second World War-in the region of Singapore, Malaya, Dutch East Indies, and Burma/Thailand.]
