Eyre Massey Shaw - Cultural Influence and Legacy

Cultural Influence and Legacy

Shaw is best remembered today as the "Captain Shaw" to whom the Fairy Queen in Gilbert and Sullivan's Iolanthe addresses herself, wondering if his "brigade with cold cascade" could quench her great love. Shaw was present in the stalls at the first night of Iolanthe in 1882, and Alice Barnett, playing the Fairy Queen, addressed herself directly to him. One can only guess at his reaction, but legend has it that he stood up and took a bow.

In 1886, Shaw was later named in an adultery lawsuit involving Lady Colin Campbell.

In addition, a historic fireboat, named the Massey Shaw, still exists, and was recently renovated. Built in 1935, it made several trips to Dunkirk during the evacuation of British troops from France in 1940. His former home, Winchester House in Southwark, is part of the London Fire Brigade Museum, an English Heritage Blue plaque adorns the building and states that Shaw lived there.

Read more about this topic:  Eyre Massey Shaw

Famous quotes containing the words cultural, influence and/or legacy:

    By Modernism I mean the positive rejection of the past and the blind belief in the process of change, in novelty for its own sake, in the idea that progress through time equates with cultural progress; in the cult of individuality, originality and self-expression.
    Dan Cruickshank (b. 1949)

    No power on earth or above the bottomless pit has such influence to terrorize and make cowards of men as the liquor power. Satan could not have fallen on a more potent instrument with which to thrall the world. Alcohol is king!
    Eliza “Mother” Stewart (1816–c. 1908)

    What is popularly called fame is nothing but an empty name and a legacy from paganism.
    Desiderius Erasmus (c. 1466–1536)