Letter from William Shaw to Martha Shaw, c. 1916 Letters 1916-1923 William Shaw

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Letter from William Shaw to his mother, Martha Shaw, updating her on his latest news. William writes about his brother injured Samuel, who is serving with the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers in France. William also writes about the latest draft to arrive in Portsmouth and a Belfast native who had recently visited Portstewart. In a postscript William writes about his stolen purse and says that he will be on the rocks for a fortnight as a result. William Shaw (1893-1934) was a gunner in the Royal Naval Reserve. He volunteered for active service in 1915 and served on ships such as the H.M.S. Excellent and H.M.S. Albemarle, a battle cruiser. Before the War he was a fisherman.

 Public Record Office of Northern Ireland Shaw Papers, D1962-14 https://letters1916.ie/item/4193 English William Shaw 1916 H.M.S. Excellent, Portsmouth, England Martha Shaw Male 1934 World War I (1914-1918) World War I (1914-1918) Personal Relations Country and City Life

The data in these XML files was generated based on a data dump from the Magellan database (https://github.com/Maynooth-Center-for-Digital-Humanities/Magellan). Each database record has been converted to a JSON file (https://github.com/letters1916static/letters-data/tree/main/json). The element section of the JSON file contains the TEI-encoded contents of the letters. The TEI XML has been cleaned and made well-formed using a Python script (https://github.com/letters1916static/letters-data/tree/main/src).

 H.M.S. Excellent Portsmouth Dear Mother Just a line to let you know that I recived your letter alright I had no word from Sam since last week I see Dan Spence is home. He can work the game alright I am sorry to hear about Sammie not being too well looking I expect he has been wounded worse than he let on. You might send me Jean's address I did o not get a scrape from her this long time. There is not much doing here only a big draft came in last night from Chatam and there was a Belfast fellow among them that stoped in Portstewart this summer he has joined up and he says he does not like it he spoted in John Frizzell house his name is Martin I expect you will know them I hope the fishing will keep up till the weather improves we have a South East breeze blowing hard today. I am getting along alright I got a V.G for big gun drill. Tell Jessie I was ask— ing for her. your loving son Willie P/S I was going up this morning to post this letter and when I went into the office I discovered that I had no purse as I changed my close I thought it may be in my other trousers but when I looked for it I found it was gone there was 18s in it so I am on the rocks for a fortnight Willie William Shaw Letter from William Shaw to James Shaw, December 1915Letter from William Shaw to Martha Shaw, 1915Letter from William Shaw to Martha Shaw, c. 1916Letter from William Shaw to Martha Shaw, c. 1916Letter from William Shaw to James and Martha Shaw, 1916 H.M.S. Excellent, Portsmouth, England Letter from William Shaw to James Shaw, December 1915Letter from William Shaw to Martha Shaw, 1915Letter from William Shaw to Martha Shaw, c. 1916Letter from William Shaw to Martha Shaw, c. 1916Letter from William Shaw to James and Martha Shaw, 1916