Two years and 3 months later in March 1944, Mona married Liverpool boxing promoter Johnny Best who was serving in India as a physical training instructor. Their son Rory was born 10 months later, and John Best adopted Peter as his own. When the family relocated to Liverpool in December 1945, they arrived for all intents and purposes as a family unit, all with the Best family name.
In 1948, Thomas and Mary Shaw sailed to England, and spent the rest of their days in Liverpool living with their daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren at 8 Hayman's Green.
Major Tom died in 1958, a year before the Quarry Men photo was taken, Mary followed in 1962.
I found this
photograph of Major Shaw in a Daily Mail article dated 1 June 2007, which was
timed to coincide with the 40th anniversary of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club
Band.
Headlined, "Revealed: The REAL Sergeant Pepper", journalist Nick McDermott wrote:
It is a mystery that has puzzled Beatles fans for four decades.
While Paul
McCartney and George Harrison proudly sported their MBEs on the sleeve of Sgt
Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, John Lennon refused to be pictured with the
award he would later return to Buckingham Palace.
Instead, he wore five antique medals on his left breast.
Until now, the truth about where those medals came from has eluded devotees of the band. In fact, they once belonged to Major Thomas Shaw, grandfather of the 'fifth Beatle', Pete Best.
The band's original drummer, Best was sacked by manager Brian Epstein in 1962 shortly before they hit the big time.
The drummer, who still tours with his own band, revealed the history of the decorations on the 40th anniversary of the release of Sgt Pepper - one of the most influential albums in rock.
Its psychedelic cover featured a collage of life-sized cardboard models fronted by the four Beatles in fluorescent military attire.
Lennon, a fan of military paraphernalia, remembered the medals long after Best had been replaced as drummer by Ringo Starr. They were awarded to Major Shaw for exemplary service with the British Raj in India...
Presumably based on information provided by Pete, but perhaps not, McDermott then claims that during his time in India, Major Shaw served in the 11th (Prince of Wales's Own) Bengal Lancers between 1876 and 1903, and in recognition of this:
He was awarded the Afghan War Medal and three other crosses during the two-year Second Anglo-Afghan War, which ended in 1880. He also received two other medals to mark the length of his service.
And here is where the story begins to unravel.
At the time of
the 2007 story, "Major Shaw's medals" were on display at the
re-opened Casbah Club. Today, they are
on show on the third floor of the Liverpool Beatles Museum.
According to
the Indian database of births and baptisms (1786-1947) Mona’s father Thomas
Charles Henry Shaw was born in India 1885, in what is today the Punjab province
of central-eastern Pakistan. While it’s a possibility that he served in the
Bengal Lancers, he can’t have done in in 1876, nine years before his birth. He
certainly didn’t win an Afghan War Medal for a campaign that ended five years
before he was born.
The Afghanistan
Medal, to use the official title, featuring the then monarch, Queen Victoria,
was awarded for service in the 1878-1880 war, and you will note, looks entirely
different from any of the six medals seen on display in the Liverpool Beatles
Museum.
Pete Best told McDermott that "Every time John came to the Casbah, he would ask to see the medals. He just loved the look and the feel of them and never tired of the stories behind them."
It's thought that the Beatles' roadie Neil Aspinall, who fathered Pete's half brother Roag and lived with the Best family until 1967 grabbed the medals on John's behalf during one of his visits up North. According to Pete "John knew how important they were, so they were returned swiftly with a polite thank-you note."
As for Mona, "She was delighted to see John wear them on what turned out to be one of the greatest albums ever."
The thing is, while the medals on display bear no resemblance to those described in the Daily Mail piece, they DO appear to match the set on John's Pepper suit, and also those on Ringo's suit, which had an identical set. The medal on the extreme left is a miniature version of the M.B.E. award which the Beatles received in 1965 - Paul and George elected to wear their actual full size medals on their Pepper costumes. The two medals on the right bear a portrait of King George VI, Britain's monarch during the Second World War, from which five of these medals originate.
By the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, Major Thomas Shaw was 54 years old, too old to have taken part. If the Best family had medals belonging to Major Shaw it wasn't this set.
So who did they
belong to? The fact that Ringo's suit has a matching set suggests they came
with the costumes, or were sourced from the same military memorabilia shop.
Perhaps Neil was tasked with finding them, and kept a set after the shoot, at
some point passing them down to his son Roag?
As for Major Shaw's golf-clubs it looks like they may be joining his medals as a museum exhibit.
My fellow researcher Peter Hodgson called in on Roag Best today at the museum. The museum has been closed to the public for the last few months due to Covid-19 restrictions so Roag has had some time on his hands.*
Inspired by the Quarrymen photograph he's clearly put some of this free time to good use by searching through the countless family heirlooms and long forgotten artifacts which I would imagine are stacked floor to ceiling in the spare rooms, cellars and attic space of 8 Haymans Green. A bit like the tomb of a Pharoah, if he'd lived in West Derby.
Remarkably, he's managed to find Major Tom's golf clubs. Here's Peter with them in front of the beautiful portrait of Mona Best in the museum.
Apparently Roag is still looking for the two African heads which were on the wall in the 1959 photo. Watch this space!
Your blog is very useful, and I appreciate you sharing it with us! Further, If you are searching for the best John Lennon Costume, contact Helen Anderson.
ReplyDelete