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Walter Shaw

Age: unknown

Sex: male

Date: 16 Jun 1945

Place: Ivy Lane, Bretforton

Walter Shaw was beaten to death in Ivy Lane, Bretforton on 16 June 1945.

Three market gardeners from Bretforton were initially charged with his murder and then tried for his manslaughter but acquitted.

It was alleged that Walter Shaw, who was a coloured American soldier, had knifed the brother of one of the men that was tried for his manslaughter.

One of the men tried said that as Walter Shaw tried to pass him he shouted to one of the other men to try to hold him until the police arrived and denied that he said, 'We are going to give the black a good hiding'.

The other man said that when Walter Shaw attacked him, he tried to get out of the way. He said, 'Shaw tore out the sleeve of my shirt. I stumbled over the grass verge and missed the knife. He came at me again. I struck him on the head with a hawthorn stick. He fell or stumbled, then got up and ran away'. When he was questioned by the police, he said, 'The US coloured soldier rushed at me with his knife. I picked a stick out of the hedge, ready to protect myself'.

The policeman said that the other two men said that they had similarly picked up sticks to protect themselves.

The men were tried at the Worcester Assizes on Friday 19 October 1945, but acquitted.


*map pointers are rough estimates based on known location details as per Place field above.

see www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk

see Gloucestershire Echo - Friday 19 October 1945

see Cheltenham Chronicle - Saturday 11 August 1945

see Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail - Saturday 20 October 1945

see Birmingham Daily Post - Saturday 20 October 1945

see Western Daily Press - Friday 10 August 1945

see Birmingham Daily Post - Friday 10 August 1945