Raymond Shaw was born in Tempe, NSW, on 28 January 1922, second son to Sara (née Michael) and ‘Jack’ William Shaw. Jack opened the Astra Hotel at Bondi Beach, but after the Great Depression sent him bankrupt, he then ran the Hotel Allawah. Ray was bar mitzvah at The Great Synagogue in 1935 and for a time attended De La Salle College, Armidale, where he won awards for sketching. His younger sister, Lorraine, later recalled: “He was wild, a daredevil, unbroken by Jack, very popular with the girls. … He was an outstanding all-rounder… talented, artistic, full of the zest of living … very clever, completed his Leaving Certificate when he was 15, with one of the highest marks in the State… Flying was always his passion - he went gliding with a friend, until that friend was killed in an accident.”

Ray served in the Citizens Forces, was apprenticed to an Architect then worked as a display designer, and became secretly engaged to Marjorie Myerson. In May 1940, Ray was living in Bellevue Hill when he enlisted in the RAAF for aircrew, notwithstanding he was 6ft tall (182cm). No. 402139 Airman Raymond Shaw gave his religion as ‘C of E’ and overstated his age by two years. He learned basic flying in Gipsy and Tiger Moth biplanes at 4 EFTS Mascot for three months and is said to have flown under the Sydney Harbour Bridge, forfeiting 14 days’ pay.

Ray became best friends with a Victorian, William ‘Jeff’ Metherall, from the time they sailed in October 1940 for Canada to train as fighter pilots, with the first Empire Air Training Scheme group. Promoted to Sergeant Pilots in February 1941, they proceeded to England and learned to fly Hawker Hurricanes with the RAF. From June to August, he flew reconnaissance and convoy escort missions from Cornwall with 247 Sqn, then transferred to North Africa, re-joining Jeff. They flew with 30 Sqn, and in December 1941, as Flight Sergeants, Ray and Jeff joined 238 Sqn near the Libya-Egypt border to help defeat Rommel’s forces and relieve the Siege of Tobruk.

From February 1942 they flew Kittyhawk ground-attack aircraft with 450 Sqn (RAAF). In Jewish Anzacs, Mark Dapin quotes extensively from Ray’s letters. In March he wrote: “The Germans and Italians tried to dive bomb Tobruk which is visited pretty often, and we got into a glorious dogfight, although unfortunately out to sea. After being attacked by some German fighters I managed to beat them off and damaged one, and then diving down I saw a Macchi 202 (the latest Italian fighter and very good) attacking one of our planes from behind. I turned and dived on him and shot him down, spinning with black smoke into the sea, and also saved our plane. I was very pleased and at the present I am the top scorer in the squadron, having shot the most planes down since the squadron has been up the desert. This is my second plane, the other being a German bomber since I have joined this squadron about six weeks ago.” Ray did not reveal that he had returned to the squadron after bailing out or being downed in enemy territory, entitling him to membership of its ‘Boomerang Club.’ Nor did he mention that he then survived a crash-landing in his aircraft, which had the name of his sweetheart ‘Margorie’ (sic) painted on its nose – seen in one of the many wonderful photographs that Ray compiled in an album.

On 16 May, Jeff Metherall was shot down while on patrol. As Lorraine later recalled, “This was a great blow to [Ray], and he wrote to his [own] parents to say that he felt it was only a matter of days before he met a similar fate.” Some ten days later, Ray took off in Kittyhawk AK998, one of ten aircraft. His CO later reported that: “The [Kittyhawk] formation was attacked by two Messerschmitt ME 109’s without result, and a further two 109’s joined in - the attack lasted approx. three minutes. Later over El Adem, four more ME109’s attacked the formation, then broke off. The formation then pursued and attacked several Stukas 22 miles east of Gazala, after which our aircraft returned to base. From this operation Sgt. Shaw failed to return, and no news has yet been received.” His sister, Lorraine, still bereft sixty years on, wrote in 2002: “A fellow member of his Unit came to visit my mother after the war, and told us the shocking story of how his plane was discovered two days after he was shot down, and he was still in it, and alive, but he died on the operating table. When I think of him sick, injured in the heat of the desert with no water, my heart breaks. I wish we had not been party to that awful information.”

Aged 20, Pilot Officer Raymond Shaw died of wounds as a result of air operations on 29 May 1942. In 1944, his body was re-interred in Knightsbridge War Cemetery, Acroma, Libya - not far from the grave of his best mate, P/O Jeff Metherall - about 25 km west of Tobruk.

In April 1943, Lorraine enlisted in the WAAAF, also aged 18. Recalling her role as a clerk, she later wrote: “[Ray] was buried with a Magen Dovid on his Stone … all the Jewish airmen gave ‘C. of E.’ as their religion, in case of capture, when they would have been killed, but upon [next-of-kin] writing to the authorities, they changed it.”

POSTSCRIPT

The ramifications of Ray’s death continue to be felt down the generations. It was discovered in 2009 that Ray’s headstone had a cross on it, despite his War Graves card stating: ‘RELIGIOUS EMBLEM STAR OF DAVID’. Consequently, on behalf of his family, NAJEX is approaching the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in 2021 to have P/O Raymond Shaw’s headstone correctly inscribed with the Star of David.

Raymond Shaw was born in Tempe, NSW, on 28 January 1922, middle child of Sara (née Sarah Michael) and John ‘Jack’ William Shaw (aka Jacob Woolf Schrong, née Shroog or Shroug) who had married on 11 March 1913 at The Great Synagogue, Sydney. Jack and Sarah were active in the community and were in the hotel business most of their lives, like the rest of the Shaw family. Jack built the Astra Hotel at Bondi Beach just before the great depression struck, which then sent him bankrupt. There was a mikvah in the basement, which was the first mikvah in Sydney. Jack subsequently ran the Hotel Allawah, Railway Parade, Allawah and Raymond was bar mitzvah at The Great Synagogue on 26 January 1935. Then it seems that, while the family were living at the Burdekin Hotel in Darlinghurst, he spent some time at De La Salle College, Armidale, where his elder brother Harry (b. 1915) had been a student. Ray was awarded several prize certificates by the Armidale & New England Show in 1937 for pencil drawing.

Harry Leonard Shaw married Lilian Ailsa (née Sinfield) in 1941. Their daughter, Lynne (m. Leigh Reading), recalled in 2019: “Nobody really ever spoke about [my uncle] Raymond very much. He was wild, a daredevil, unbroken by Jack, very popular with the girls. Whenever I asked questions about him this was all I was ever told, and it seemed forever too painful to say much more. I do know that he would borrow dad’s little car, arrive home late and often need to be tipped into bed by dad, who was quite a bit older. As dad spent a lot of time at boarding school, he missed out really knowing Ray for many of his younger years. He was an outstanding all-rounder as far as I know. Flying was always his passion and he stored all his flying gear at Ailsa’s parent’s home, as his parents were not in favour of his interests. My maternal grandparents tried so hard to talk him out of flying and joining up when he was still only 17. His own parents were fairly unapproachable, although Jack’s signature is on his papers.”

Raymond’s younger sister, Lorraine Paula Shaw (b. 25 February 1925) wrote in 1983 and in 2002 that: “Ray was outstanding … talented, artistic, full of the zest of living … very clever … completed his Leaving Certificate when he was 15, with one of the highest marks in the State. / He was apprenticed to an Architect, Samuel Lipson, but found the system too slow. He then got a position [as a Display Designer] with a Mr Salway … and he was designing all equipment for this firm. / When everyone was earning £4 a week, he was getting £18 at the age of 17. / He was full of humour, and a joy to be with. / Ray was gallant and a daredevil ... He loved flying – he went gliding with a friend, until that friend was killed in an accident.”

Ray was living in Bellevue Hill and had a sweetheart, Marjorie Myerson, to whom he became secretly engaged. His outstanding artistic skills can be appreciated in his later drawing of a training aircraft, attached. He had already served for 18 months in the Citizens Forces (45 StG Bn, Grn Aty and 9th Fld Bde), when he enrolled in the RAAF Reserve on 2 April 1940 - keen to join the fight against the Nazis - notwithstanding he was tall for aircrew, being 182cm (5’ 11½“). The following month, on 27 May, No. 402139 Airman Raymond Shaw enlisted at No.2 Recruit Depot, Richmond, gave his parents’ address as Sans Souci, his religion as ‘C of E’ and overstated his age by two years. He spent six weeks at No. 2 I.T.S. (Initial Training School) RAAF Bradfield Park, Lindfield NSW. (More than 200,000 members of the RAAF and the WAAAF received ‘Rookie’ training there on their way to service in World War Two). Then from 25 July, he spent three months learning to fly on Gipsy Moth and Tiger Moth aircraft at Kingsford Smith Airfield, Mascot, with No. 4 E.F.T.S. (Elementary Flying Training School). Accidents in the WWI-era biplanes were common during training, with forced landings and at least one air-to-air collision being recorded. (The only fatality was that of Pilot Officer L. Bayliss, who fell from a Tiger Moth while doing a slow roll over Randwick on 18 November 1940. ln March 1940, the unit strength stood at five officers, 46 air cadets, 26 airmen and two civilians. By August of the same year, there were seven officers, 100 airmen and 23 'impressed' aircraft on strength, but by January 1941 the School had commenced to scale down its activities and was officially disbanded on 24 April 1942, as training was moved to other locations.)

On 22 July, Ray was promoted to Leading Aircraftman. His record shows an offence on 5 October 1940, described as: “Conduct to the prejudice of Air Force discipline,” which resulted in the forfeit of 14 days’ pay. It seems that was a consequence of a stunt that Lorraine later recalled: “He flew under the Harbour Bridge for a ‘dare’ and consequently that cost him.” Otherwise, Ray had an unblemished service record. He embarked with the first batch of RAAF members of the Empire Air Training Scheme on HMT Awatea (Maori for ‘eye of the dawn’) from Sydney on 31 October for the three-week trans-Pacific journey to Vancouver, Canada. From that time, he became close friends with William ‘Jeff’ Metherall, a former clerk from Melbourne, and some four years older. Attached to the RCAF at Camp Borden, southern Ontario, Ray and Jeff attended No.1 S.F.T.S (Service Flying Training School), practising in single-engined Yale Howard II monoplanes through the snowy Canadian winter. After graduating with their Flying Badges on 11 February 1941, Ray and Jeff were promoted to Sergeant Pilot and posted to RCAF Station Rockliffe, Ottawa. On 10 March – now attached to the RAF - they embarked on SS Corrales from Hamilton to cross the Atlantic Ocean in a convoy to Liverpool, England. They arrived at 3 PRC Uxbridge on 1 April and the pair continued to serve together, except for a few months later that year.

Ray and Jeff commenced training as fighter pilots on 5 May 1941 at 55 OTU (Operational Training Unit), based at RAF Aston Down, Gloucestershire (also at Usworth and Ouston), learning to fly Hawker Hurricanes. On 17 June Ray was posted briefly to the RAF Fighter Command’s 242 Sqn at North Weald, Essex. From 28 June to 13 August, he flew several operational missions with 247 Sqn, based at RAF Predannack, Cornwall, including reconnaissance, convoy escort and “Dusk and Night Patrol enemy over Plymouth.” It seems that during this time in England, Ray met other girls, but he remained committed to Marjorie.

Ray was then transferred to Middle East Command of the RAF, to help in the fight against the German and Italian forces in North Africa, and he rejoined Jeff there. From 17 September to 1 December 1941, they flew with 30 Sqn, after it had returned to Egypt following the fall of Greece and the Battle of Crete. One of 16 Desert Air Force (DAF) squadrons that grew to 29 by the end of 1942, it was employed in the night defence of Alexandria and shipping protection patrols, then on operations in the Western Desert. From there, Ray and Jeff joined 238 Squadron in December 1941, near the Libyan border with Egypt, at RAF Gambut. It comprised six airfields that the New Zealand 4th Infantry Brigade had recently recaptured from the enemy. Both squadrons were heavily involved in the British forces’ Operation Crusader, intended to bypass Axis defences on the frontier, to defeat Rommel’s armoured forces and to relieve the Siege of Tobruk. Ray and Jeff were promoted to Flight Sergeant, flying Hurricanes in bomber escort missions and fighter patrols until 27 January 1942.

Shortly afterwards, they were transferred to 450 Sqn, an RAAF unit also based at Gambut that flew the Curtiss P-40D Kittyhawk, an American single-engined, single-seat, all-metal fighter and ground-attack aircraft. Originally known as the Warhawk or Tomahawk, it had a top speed of 362mph, ceiling of 30,000 feet and a range of 900 miles under normal operation, but 1190 miles with extra fuel tanks. The Kittyhawk’s armament comprised four or six ½-inch machine guns. On 22 February, two weeks after commencing operational missions: “Sgt Raymond Shaw was scrambled on interception and found a Jun 88 at 20,000 ft,” becoming the first pilot in the squadron to shoot down an enemy aircraft. He is shown celebrating his ‘kill’ in a photo with Jeff - and the action was depicted in a recent painting by Ivan Berryman, attached. The Junkers Jun 88, a German high-speed bomber, coded 7A+NH from 1.(F)121, suffered terminal damage to an engine and crash-landed in the desert, south-east of Gazala, on the Libyan coast, where its crew were taken prisoner.

Ray wrote many letters home (of which two survive from at least eleven), some mentioning Jeff, and Mark Dapin quotes extensively from them in Jewish Anzacs. Referring to one letter dated 17 March 1942, Dapin notes that: ‘Shaw displayed the typical concerns of a young pilot – “My moustache is growing strongly, although fairly fair” – and an anxious Australian, fighting halfway across the world: “I am constantly hoping to come back home and have a go at the yellow B—”.’

Ray proudly reported: “The other day while on patrol the Germans and Italians tried to dive bomb Tobruk which is visited pretty often and we got into a glorious dogfight, although unfortunately out to sea. After being attacked by some German fighters I managed to beat them off and damaged one and then diving down I saw a Macchi 202 (the latest Italian fighter and very good) attacking one of our planes from behind. I turned and dived on him and shot him down spinning with black smoke into the sea and also saved our plane. I was very pleased and at the present I am the top scorer in the squadron having shot the most planes down since the squadron has been up the desert. This is my second plane, the other being a German bomber since I have joined this squadron about six weeks ago. While I was at other squadrons & did lots of important protection work both day & night, I never had much success, as at night time one cannot see the results of the shooting unless a lucky shot & the planes used to go out to sea.”

He declared: “I am writing this letter after having just come back from a 48 hrs leave in Alexandria & Cairo - I suppose it sounds silly to you but I travelled over 1300 miles by air just for that 48 hours, a break from the dust sand and storms of the desert, the pleasure to put on clean clothes (my blue uniform), to wash, to sleep between sheets and to order what food I desire – prawns and chicken – to go dancing with a charming Jewish girl I met in Alexandria. She is very pretty and attractive French … but still Marjorie has the first claim. I am told she looks very beautiful - ah, how I would like to see her again.”

Sometime during the month of March, Ray had become the fourth member of the 450 Squadron’s exclusive ‘Boomerang Club’ – aka ‘the Desert Harassers’ - created to recognise those pilots who returned to the squadron from operations on foot, or by other means, after bailing out or suffering a forced landing in enemy territory. The names of the men, with their current rank, were initially engraved on an aluminium plate, which was later mounted on the wooden shield seen in the attached photo. The honour roll of Boomerang Club members was displayed in the pilot's mess in each airfield to which the squadron was posted. Four of the men named on the shield survived and returned from a landing in enemy territory twice. Of the 33 pilots eventually named on the shield by May 1944, seven were subsequently killed in flying battle. Ray had the name of his sweetheart, ‘Margorie’ (sic) painted as ‘nose-art’ on his Kittyhawk fighter plane. He survived a crash-landing in it at Gambut on 19 March.

On 28 March, Ray wrote home again, not wishing to worry his folks by mentioning the ‘Boomerang Club’ episode nor his crash-landings, but excited that he had: “damaged a Messerschmitt 109F (a German latest high-speed fighter). The latter occurred in a ‘show’ when I was attacked by six of them and a running fight took place for about eighty miles. It was very hectic with the Germans doing their utmost to get rid of an accursed Australian for they know Australians are fighting against them and they don’t like it. However everything came off alright. I never got hit but I put a good burst into one of them and he fell away, black smoke pouring out and so with that they broke off and home I came a very relieved young boy.” He closed, noting that: “I, as well as all the Aussies here, are eager to come home & fight the Japs, but we are told the war here protecting the Suez & the oil fields is just as important, but nevertheless, I feel sure I will be home within the end of the year, however, it is in the lap of the gods. … My commission form has been signed by the Air Officer Commanding (the highest up) & has gone to England & so I should have a commission before terribly long & I will be glad, as out east it is a definite advantage & if they are giving them to chaps who have just got their wings & if you remember when I first asked you to sign the recruiting papers was what I set out to do - much more damage than if I was in the army, as what you wanted me to do.”

Over the course of his service, Ray took many wonderful photographs and assembled them together with some of his marvellous sketches into an outstanding, captioned album. Many of the photos show him and other airmen enjoying themselves and playing ‘shenanigans’, including cavorting naked in the Mediterranean Sea. But Lorraine recalled that Ray also wrote of some of his darker experiences: “Conditions [in Libya] were terrible. They slept in slit trenches. They washed in petrol, because of the shortage of drinking water…. He watched his mates die one by one.”

The squadron’s main duties of fighter cover, combined with escorts to Bostons’ day bombing, continued as the year 1942 drew on, but the added complication of moving bases back towards El Alamein, whilst the full retreat to Egypt accelerated, meant that the 28 March letter of Ray’s was one of his last home. On 16 May, his best friend, Jeff Metherall, was one of a formation that engaged enemy aircraft while patrolling south-east of Gazala. Jeff’s Kittyhawk AK604 was seen to lose height rapidly, then crash and burn, south of Acroma, a town just west of Tobruk. As Lorraine later recalled, “This was a great blow to [Ray], and he wrote to his [own] parents to say that he felt it was only a matter of days before he met a similar fate.” She penned a tribute for Jeff on behalf of Ray: see Postscript.

Some ten days later, on the evening of 25, 26 or 27 May 1942, Ray took off in Kittyhawk AK998 as a member of a formation of ten aircraft, for patrol over Acroma. As recorded on 29 May by the squadron’s Adjutant and acting CO, Flt Lt Bruce McRae Shepherd: “The [Kittyhawk] formation was attacked by two Messerschmitt ME 109’s without result, and a further two 109’s joined in - the attack lasted approx. three minutes. Later over El Adem, four more ME109’s attacked the formation for approx. three minutes, then broke off. The [Kittyhawk] formation then pursued and attacked several Stukas 22 miles east of Gazala, after which our aircraft returned to base. From this operation Sgt. Shaw failed to return, and no news has yet been received.” That same day, Flt Lt Shepherd recommended Ray for Commission as a Pilot Officer, noting his ‘Very Good’ Character and ‘Superior’ Proficiency.

P/O Raymond Shaw was initially reported as ‘missing on operations,’ potentially achieving another ‘Boomerang Club’ recognition, given there were no witnesses to his fate. But, as Ray’s sister Lorraine wrote in 2002, still bereft sixty years on: “A fellow member of his Unit came to visit my mother after the war, and told us the shocking story, of how his plane was discovered two days after he was shot down, and he was still in it, and alive, but he died on the operating table*. When I think of him sick, injured in the heat of the desert with no water, my heart breaks. I wish we had not been party to that awful information.”

*This treatment was likely ‘in the field’ by a mobile medical recovery/ambulance unit, as he was temporarily buried in an isolated grave in the desert: “Found near said plane,” according to the grave concentration record. So it was, that two years and two days after he enlisted in the RAAF, on 29 May 1942 Pilot Officer Raymond Shaw died of wounds as a result of air operations (although officially he is noted as ‘Killed in Action’), age 20. His commission was gazetted on 1 October 1942 and back-dated with effect from 19 March 1942 - the date that he survived a crash-landing. His body was re-interred on 12 June 1944 to Knightsbridge War Cemetery, Acroma, not far from the grave of his mate, P/O Jeff Metherall - about 25 kilometres west of Tobruk.

Not surprisingly, shortly after her 18th birthday, Ray’s sister enlisted in the WAAAF (Women’s Auxiliary Australian Air Force) on 29 April 1943 as No. N109108 ACW Lorraine Shaw – exactly eleven months after his death. In 1944 she wrote a poem in Ray’s name to their broken-hearted mother, reflecting on the death of Jeff: it is transcribed in the Postscript. In her role as a clerk (briefly serving as an Acting Corporal), Lorraine would have had first-hand knowledge of Jewish men who enlisted in the RAAF but attested a different religion. She wrote in 2002 that: “He was buried with a Magen Dovid on his Stone … all the Jewish airmen gave ‘C. of E.’ as their religion, in case of capture, when they would have been killed, but upon [next-of-kin] writing to the authorities, they changed it.”

POSTSCRIPT

The ramifications of Ray’s death continue to be felt down the generations. It was not until after Lorraine [Havin] passed away in 2006, that it was discovered (by her daughter/Ray’s niece, Lynne Reading, on a 2009 visit to the cemetery in Libya) that Ray’s headstone actually has a cross on it. In 2020, research by Peter Allen found that his War Graves Record Card in the National Archives of Australia (NAA) correctly states: ‘RELIGIOUS EMBLEM STAR OF DAVID’ - and the family confirmed that they: “would absolutely love for his headstone to be changed to one with a Magen David.” To that end, on behalf of the family, NAJEX approached the Office of Australian War Graves in 2020-21, to seek to have the error rectified by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and the headstone of P/O Raymond Shaw correctly engraved with the Star of David.

The Knightsbridge War Cemetery name is derived from an intersection of two Bedouin paths, 19 km south of Acroma, which assumed strategic importance. It became known by the Allied codename Knightsbridge and was the focus of the Battle of Knightsbridge during June 1942. The cemetery is located 6.5 km north of Acroma, near the main road linking Tobruk and Gazala.

Ray’s outstanding photo album was returned to the family, and it is hoped that record will be exhibited by the Sydney Jewish Museum, perhaps as part of its display Serving Australia: The Jewish Involvement in Australian Military History. In a typed obituary that Lorraine placed in the photo album in 1983, she confirmed that Marjorie Myerson was Ray’s long-time sweetheart, and in 1988 Lorraine’s son, David Whitten searched for, found and spoke to Marjorie F., married and living in Melbourne. She acknowledged: “There was a romance for a couple of months. / He was a lovely man – a very fine person. / I had only just left school [aged 14]. / It was possible [if he had returned] that there might have been a long term relationship. / We did have correspondence - which I have not kept.”

Jack and Sara Shaw became members of Newtown Synagogue during the war years, as did several other members of the Shaw family. In the late 1940's they joined Central Synagogue, where Jack served on the board in the early 1950's and was Treasurer for one year.

In 1944 - presumably after the family received Ray’s photo album - the following poem was written by Lorraine, effectively as a tribute to Jeff Metherall by her late brother from the grave.

MY CONSCIENCE CLEAR
(Dedicated to P/O Raymond Shaw)

Darling Mother,
Jeff was killed today. Remember Jeff?
And suddenly I feel my life bereft
Of happiness, of comradeship, of joy.
He was my pal, this fine young boy.
In Canada we got our wings
We were so thrilled; we laughed at things,
That seemed to us to be a joke,
Like making dates when we were broke.
In England they let us fly the Spits,
And even through that dreadful blitz,
We enjoyed our great grim game with fate,
We lived that fight, me and my mate.
Libya was quite a different sphere,
And yet, our aim, the same, was clear,
But here was heat, and dust and sand,
Forgotten the pleasures of the Strand.
To pass the time, Jeff wrote, I sketched,
We planned a book and clearly etched
Our way of life, making light,
of hardships; keeping bright.
I write this all to you my dear,
To let you know I feel no fear,
As they killed Jeff, so I’ll kill them,
Nothing, my revenge, will stem.
And should I not get back to-morrow,
I beg you darling, not to sorrow,
Don’t weep, for I will die, my duty done,
My conscience clear. Your loving son.

A/Cpl. L.P. Shaw
(W.A.A.A.F.)

(Clearly the poem was written in 1944, after Lorraine joined the WAAAF and was promoted to A/Cpl. in March 1944 - not in ‘1942’ as per a handwritten annotation.)

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On 29 May 2012, in recognition of his 70th Yahrzeit, the family published a tribute in the Sydney Morning Herald:

In grateful memory of Pilot Officer Raymond Shaw (450 Squadron RAAF) killed in action over Libya May 29th, 1942.

Raymond was a proud Jewish man who died, aged 22 (sic), helping to defend the free world from the scourge of Nazi terror. The struggle and sacrifice of Raymond and his comrades will never be forgotten.