Uploaded November 2020 | Updated September 2026, 4 hours ago
In this the next in our series of Regency characters, we tell you about Jack Shaw who was already famous in England as the contender for the bare knuckle boxing championship. He enlisted in the Army in the Household Cavalry, served in the Peninsular War and then added to his fame at the Battle of Waterloo by his heroic conduct and ultimate death outside the walls of La Haye Sainte.
Shaw was also mentioned in the memoirs of the celebrated Captain Gronow who gave an alternative version of Shaw's death when speaking of one Colonel Kelly at Waterloo:
"Shaw, the famous prize fighter, a private in his regiment came to his assistance, and these two heroes fought side by side, killing or disabling many of their antagonists, till poor Shaw, after receiving several wounds, was killed from a thrust through the body by a French Colonel of Cuirassiers, who, in his turn received a blow from Kelley's sword, which cut through his helmet and stretched him lifeless upon the ground."
A vignette of the desperate struggle between the two armies.
But that was not the end of Shaw's story......
In this the next in our series of Regency characters, we tell you about Jack Shaw who was already famous in England as the contender for the bare knuckle boxing championship. He enlisted in the Army in the Household Cavalry, served in the Peninsular War and then added to his fame at the Battle of Waterloo by his heroic conduct and ultimate death outside the walls of La Haye Sainte.
Shaw was also mentioned in the memoirs of the celebrated Captain Gronow who gave an alternative version of Shaw's death when speaking of one Colonel Kelly at Waterloo:
"Shaw, the famous prize fighter, a private in his regiment came to his assistance, and these two heroes fought side by side, killing or disabling many of their antagonists, till poor Shaw, after receiving several wounds, was killed from a thrust through the body by a French Colonel of Cuirassiers, who, in his turn received a blow from Kelley's sword, which cut through his helmet and stretched him lifeless upon the ground."
A vignette of the desperate struggle between the two armies.
But that was not the end of Shaw's story......
