Pat Shaw as fireman in Cardiff

[Geoff Pritchard]

Whilst I did not know Patrick Shuldham-Shaw personally, my father did.

Just prior to the Second World War my father joined the Auxiliary Fire Service in Cardiff, being subsumed into the National Fire Service on its formation in 1941. Patrick served in the N. F. S. as a member of my father’s staff and he regarded him very highly as a colleague. On the disbandment of the N. F. S. My father became Administrative Officer of Dorset Fire Brigade and some time in the mid 1950s Patrick who was doing a lecture tour in the area came to see him and they reminisced about times in Cardiff.

In 1977 he was due to give a lecture and recital in Weymouth when he died suddenly , I think, the day before the event. Thirty year later, when writing the history of a local school, I found a reference to the concert and the reasons for its cancellation.

For some reason his funeral took place at Weymouth Crematorium, and my father attended.

My father told me that he remembered him as a very interesting, intelligent and entertaining member of his staff, who, but for the strange circumstances of war, he would not have come into contact with.

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