MICHAEL NORMAN SHAW, LORD SHAW OF NORTHSTEAD (S 34-38) 1920-2021

The OS Club is saddened to share the news that Michael Shaw, The Lord Shaw of Northstead, passed away peacefully on 8th January at the age of 100. Lord Shaw was a former National Liberal and British Conservative Party politician who served as an MP from 1960 to 1964 (as a National Liberal) and from 1966 to 1992 for the Conservatives. At his death he was the oldest life peer and the third oldest knight bachelor after Capt Sir Tom Moore and Sir Patrick Duffy, former MP.

Born in Leeds, Lord Shaw joined Sedgwick House in 1934 before leaving in the summer of 1938. He then joined the Indian Army on the outbreak of war, but contracted tuberculosis on the voyage out. Discharged from the Army, he joined his family firm as a chartered accountant. He married Joan Mowat in 1951. Standing first as a Conservative at the general election in 1955, Lord Shaw fought the safe Labour seat of Dewsbury, losing by over 7,000 votes. At the general election in October 1959, he stood as a ‘Liberal and Conservative’ and contested the Labour-held marginal constituency of Brighouse and Spenborough. He lost by only 47 votes to the sitting MP Lewis John Edwards, who died the following month. At the resulting by-election in March 1960, Shaw won the seat for the National Liberals and Conservatives with a majority of 666 votes over Labour’s Colin Jackson.

Lord Shaw returned to Parliament at the 1966 general election, when he was elected for the safe Conservative constituency of Scarborough and Whitby. He held that seat until it was abolished for the February 1974 general election, when he was re-elected for the new Scarborough constituency. He continued to represent Scarborough until he retired at the 1992 general election, making a total of 30 years as an MP. He also served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 1974 until 1979, when MEPs were not directly elected, but were chosen by the House of Commons and House of Lords as delegates.

In the 1982 Birthday Honours, Lord Shaw received a Knighthood, having the accolade conferred by The Queen on 25 November 1982. He was created a life peer on 30 September 1994 with the title Baron Shaw of Northstead, of Liversedge in the County of West Yorkshire and retired from the House of Lords on 31 March 2015. He was also the first Sedbergh School Foundation 1525 Society President from 2002-2005.

Michael, Joan and family lived in the historic Duxbury Hall in Liversedge, until he and Joan retired to more amenable accommodation in Winchester in 2015 when he retired from the House of Lords. He died on 8th January 2021 aged 100, leaving his wife, Joan, three sons and five grandchildren.

Please click here to read an obituary from The Yorkshire Post.