Tributes to Ryedale estate owner (From Gazette & Herald)

Tributes to Ryedale estate owner

MAJOR JOHN SHAW, one of Ryedale's best-known personalities, has died at the age of 81.

He ran the family estate at Welburn, Kirkbymoorside, for many years, after an Army career which saw him receive the Military Cross during the Second World War.

His eldest son, Johnny, who now runs the estate, said his father had trained at Sandhurst and joined the Royal Horse Guards two days before the outbreak of the war in 1939, serving in Palestine, Iraq, North Africa, Italy and north-west Europe.

Major Shaw later served in the Korean War before leaving the army in 1953.

He farmed the Welburn estate, which covers about 1,800 acres from Kirkdale in the north to Wombleton and Muscotes in the south.

He had two spells as Master of the Sinnington Hunt, from 1956 to 1961, and again from 1965 to 1974. He later became chairman of both the Sinnington and Farndale Hunts.

Major Shaw served as a district councillor for the Kirkbymoorside area for several years, was president of the Royal British Legion in the town, and of the Conservative Association.

He was also president of Ryedale Show, which is held on the estate each year, and was chairman of Russells, the Kirkbymoorside agricultural machinery company.

A keen horseman, Major Shaw was steward at Pontefract, Teesside Park and Redcar racecourses and owned and bred racehorses, the best-known being Blind Harbour which won the Vaux Gold Tankard at Teesside where it created a new record several years ago.

The Rev John Manchester, Vicar of Old Malton and a long-standing family friend, will conduct Major Shaw's funeral at St Gregory's Minster, Kirkdale, tomorrow, at 11.30am. He said: "He was a great scholar - a well-read man of deep faith, a philosopher and historian - a very intellectual man and a great lover of the countryside."

Major Shaw, who was a widower, also leaves another son, William, who runs a transport company in Australia.

Updated: 12:52 Thursday, January 02, 2003