William Boyd “Bill” Kennedy-Shaw
Major · #146099 · HQ Patrol · OBE, MID, MBE
| Rank | Major |
|---|---|
| Service number | #146099 |
| Patrol | HQ Patrol |
| Regiment | General List |
| Known as | “Bill” |
| Born | 1901 |
| Honours | OBE, MID, MBE |
What this roll records
LONDON COMPRESSED THE THREE FOUNDERS INTO ONE MAN, AND A NEW ZEALAND PAPER PRINTED IT. A second cable in the Wanganui Chronicle of 15 February 1941, datelined London 13 February and received at 11.20 p.m. the night before, says: “The Long-Range Desert Group is commanded by a lieutenant-colonel famed as an explorer in the Libyan Desert, who was formerly a British official of the Egyptian Survey Department and a member of the Palestine Department of Antiquities.” THAT IS THREE MEN, NOT ONE: Bagnold the explorer and commander, Clayton of the Egyptian Survey Department, and Kennedy Shaw of the Palestine Department of Antiquities. The Cairo despatch printed in the same papers two days to a month later names all three correctly and separately. The London error is left as printed and recorded here because it is the kind of mistake that gets copied forward. Source: Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 85, Issue 39, 15 February 1941, page 6, via Papers Past (National Library of New Zealand).
HQ Section: "Capt. W.B. Kennedy Shaw" (LRDG Intelligence/Navigation Officer), at the HQ1 vehicle. Brendan O'Carroll, "The Long Range Desert Group in North Africa".
March 1942 roll (courtesy Tarek el Mahdy): I C off
Honours added from LRDG Honours & Awards list (Middle East 1940–43): MBE. Source: W.B. Kennedy-Shaw, “Long Range Desert Group” (original honours & awards list, comp. D. Buxton).
Intelligence officer of the LRP/LRDG from its formation; a pre-war desert explorer who trained the patrols’ navigators and, in the Fezzan raid (January 1941), reconnoitred passes through the Eghei Mountains. Source: ‘Long Range Desert Group in Libya, 1940–41’, Episodes & Studies Vol. 1 (NZ official war history).
OBE, MBE, m.i.d., Belgian Croix de Guerre; Gill Memorial RGS; born England, 1901. Intelligence officer LRP and LRDG. Source: Episodes & Studies Vol. 1 (biographical notes).
Added from LRP Roll: IO LRP; IO LRDG; Major OETA. Source: LRP Roll (Original LRP Nominal Roll as at 5 Dec 1940, Capt L H Browne).
The Kiwi Scorpions (Brendan O'Carroll): Maj. W. B. Kennedy Shaw — Gill Memorial, Royal Geographical Society; born England, 1901; Sudan Forest Service 1924–29; Dept of Antiquities, Palestine 1936–40; Intelligence Corps 1940; Intelligence Officer LRP and LRDG.
The Kiwi Scorpions (Brendan O'Carroll) — formation of the LRP patrols, 1940: At formation the intelligence officer was Lieutenant W. B. K. Shaw, borrowed from the Colonial Service in Palestine.
The roll formerly carried this man twice — as Major William Boyd Kennedy-Shaw, #146099, and as Major William Kennedy Shaw with no service number — and the second of those cards had itself been flagged “verify against existing Shaw stubs” when it was added from the LRP Roll. They were merged in August 2026. Both cards give a Major of Headquarters holding the M.B.E., both give him born in England in 1901, and both cite the Gill Memorial of the Royal Geographical Society; the LRP Roll entry and Brendan O’Carroll’s “The Kiwi Scorpions” describe the same man, the intelligence officer of the LRP and of the LRDG, and that is who the London Gazette holds under 146099. The two cards are therefore one man, and the notes that stood on the unnumbered card — O’Carroll’s biography and the account of the LRP’s formation — are kept here.
London Gazette entries found under 146099, dating his progression: “Second-Lieutenant William Boyd Kennedy Shaw (146099), Intelligence Corps” on 4 July 1941 (Supplement 35209, p.3883); M.B.E. by 11 December 1942; “Captain (temporary Major) William Boyd Kennedy Shaw, M.B.E. (146099), Intelligence Corps” on 12 October 1943 (Supplement 36209, p.4540); and O.B.E. by 3 October 1944 (Supplement 36731, p.4574). AND AN AFTERLIFE THIS ROLL DID NOT HOLD: “Major William Boyd Kennedy SHAW, O.B.E. (146099), Army Air Corps” on 11 May 1948 (Supplement 38288, p.2921), and “Major William Boyd KENNEDY-SHAW, O.B.E. (146099), Special Air Service Regiment” on 1 July 1952 (Issue 39587, p.3590). The man who wrote the Group’s history was still a serving Major, commissioned into the Special Air Service Regiment, as late as 1952. Source: The London Gazette.
HIS MENTION IN DESPATCHES, DATED. London Gazette, 11 December 1942, Supplement 35821, page 5445, under the heading “Intelligence Corps”: “Lt. (temp. Capt.) W. B. K. Shaw, M.B.E. (146099)”. That supplement is the Mentioned in Despatches list for the Middle East covering November 1941 to April 1942, its preamble on page 5437 reading “The KING has been graciously pleased to approve that the following be Mentioned in recognition of gallant and distinguished services in the Middle East”. So the Mention this card carries from his own honours list now has a Gazette reference behind it, and the Intelligence Corps attribution is confirmed at the same time. Source: The London Gazette.
See him in the full roll →Where this comes from
- AKA added from the LRDG Preservation Society’s Troopers roll (missing information).
- Murzuk Raid roll (courtesy Tarek el Mahdy)
This page is part of the Long Range Desert Group roll of members at lrdgarchive.org. If you hold rights to anything on it and would like it credited differently, or taken down, please see Sources and Copyright. It will be dealt with promptly.
Not By Strength But By Guile