Description
Physical description
Handmade wooden baton decorated with a length of blue/white/red ribbon wrapped around part of the lower portion of the baton.
Label
Conductor's baton associated with Major J W Shaw's attempt to escape from Freiburg prisoner of war camp (Germany) during the First World War (see also EPH 813). As conductor of the Freiburg prison camp orchestra he feigned an injured foot during a comedy sketch as part of an 'entertainment' in the Germans' dining room. He tried to escape from his dressing room window, but was intercepted and sent to Holzminden Camp.
During the First World War Major Shaw served with 2nd King Edward's Horse, the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry and the Royal Flying Corps. He was taken prisoner at Messines in 1917 and held at Freiburg. Following his escape from this camp he was recaptured and imprisoned in Holzminden POW camp. While there he assisted in the construction of the famous 'Holzminden Tunnel' through which 29 officers escaped. Major Shaw was the 31st in the queue and the tunnel subsided and collapsed on the man in front.
During the Second World War he served as Assistant Military Liaison Officer, No 6 (Southern) Region, Reading December 1939 - August 1945.
History note
Major Jack William Shaw served with distinction in the RFC "bringing down five German machines on the Western Front, serving with the 22nd and 40th Squadrons. The French awarded him the Croix de Guerre. He was taken prisoner at Messines in 1917 and imprisoned at Freiburg. Major Shaw escaped from this camp and when recaptured was put into a POW camp at Holzminden. While there he assisted in the construction of the famous Holzminden tunnel. Through this tunnel 29 officers escaped - ten of them ultimately returning to the british lines. Major Shaw was 31st in the queue and the tunnel subsided and collapsed on the man in front of him."