Eric Rigby Shaw - Lt. Commander R.C.N.R.
Eric Rigby Shaw, born in Rochester, New York, U.S.A., while parents were travelling from Liverpool, England to a new home in Port Hope, Ontario on April 24, 1909. He attended Malvern High School in Toronto and moved to Vancouver in 1925. Went to sea in the Merchant Navy as a cadet, February 28, 1926, in the Canadian Government Merchant Marine and obtained a Master Mariner's certificate in 1936. Transferred to Canadian Pacific passenger liners in 1937. Married Mary Honora Hooper September 2, 1939, as war broke out and became a gunnery officer on the RMS Empress of Asia. Then transferred to H.M.C.S. Naden for special training. He was subsequently commanding officer of ships H.M.C.S. Cartier, Melville, New Waterford and Nene. He has one son, Kenneth Lee Shaw, twin grandsons, Stephen and Craig 20, air pilots in training and one granddaughter, Joelle 23, a geologist and geophysicist. When the war ended, Eric resumed his career in the merchant navy with Canadian Pacific, and when Pacific service was discontinued in 1956, he changed careers to the Civil Service in the Post Office at Vancouver B.C. Eric retired from the Civil Service in 1974 at age 65 and became verger, caretaker at St. John's church North Vancouver. His first wife Mary died January 12, 1984. He married Ruth Harper June 22, 1985 and attended the first reunion of the Nene in Belleville, where Ruth has one sister living.