Recorded in November 2021.
“Shaw-Stewart was an Old Etonian, and a Classics scholar of legendary genius.” “When war was declared in 1914, he joined the Royal Naval Division, serving with Rupert Brooke.” “Like many public-school-educated men of his …
Recorded in November 2021.
“Shaw-Stewart was an Old Etonian, and a Classics scholar of legendary genius.” “When war was declared in 1914, he joined the Royal Naval Division, serving with Rupert Brooke.” “Like many public-school-educated men of his generation, he welcomed the idea of fighting at Gallipoli: 'It is the luckiest thing and the most romantic. Think of fighting in the Chersonese... or alternatively, if it's the Asiatic side they want us on, on the plains of Troy itself! I am going to take my Herodotus as a guide-book.’ He survived the Gallipoli campaign, but Brooke did not. He was present at Brooke's burial on Skyros, and commanded the firing party.
His fame today stems from his poem, Achilles in the Trench, one of the best-known of the war poems of the First World War. It was written as Shaw-Stewart was waiting to be sent to fight at Gallipoli, while on leave at the island of Imbros, and overlooking Hisarlik (the site of the ancient city of Troy). In the poem, Shaw-Stewart makes numerous references to the Iliad, questioning, ‘Was it so hard, Achilles, so very hard to die?’. In the final stanza, he evokes the image of flame-capped Achilles, shouting from the Achaean ramparts after the death of Patroclus, and requests that Achilles likewise shout for himself during the battle.”
“It seems to have been his only poem, found written, after his death, into his copy of Housman's A Shropshire Lad.”
“While he was at Imbros he seemed to enjoy speaking ancient Greek to the inhabitants of the island; in one of his letters he wrote: ‘here I am, living in a Greek village and talking the language of Demosthenes to the inhabitants (who are really quite clever at taking my meaning).’”
“In 1916 the Cross of Chevalier of the French Legion of Honour was conferred upon Shaw-Stewart ‘in recognition of valuable services rendered,’ and, later that year, he was awarded the Croix de Guerre. Promoted to lieutenant commander, and in temporary command of the Hood Battalion, he was killed in France on 30 December 1917, whilst making his way up a sunken road, just behind the fire trenches. He was struck in the mouth by a shell fragment, and died almost immediately.”
