Partner Alfred E. Goodey
Queer Places:
Cliveden House & Pavilion Spa, Taplow SL6 0JF, Regno Unito
Grimsthorpe Castle, Grimsthorpe Estate Office, Bourne PE10 0LY, Regno Unito
Robert
Gould "Bobbie" Shaw III (18 August 1898 – 10 July 1970) was an American-born
English socialite. He was the only son of
Nancy Witcher Langhorne and Robert
Gould Shaw II, a landowner and socialite. After his parents' divorce in 1903,
he moved to England with his mother, who later married Waldorf Astor, 2nd
Viscount Astor.
Robert Gould Shaw III was born on 18 August 1898 in Beverly, Massachusetts. Through his father, he was a grandson of investor Quincy Adams Shaw and cousin of Civil War Union casualty Colonel Robert Gould Shaw. His maternal grandparents were railroad millionaire Chiswell Dabney Langhorne and Nancy Witcher (née Keene) Langhorne.[1][2]
Robert Gould Shaw III's father had a limited role in his life while he had a close, if occasionally difficult, relationship to his mother.[3] His parents divorced in 1903, and in 1904 he moved to England with his mother where she would marry the 2nd Viscount Astor in 1906, with whom she had five more children, including the 3rd Viscount Astor.[4]
After moving to England, Robert Gould Shaw III was educated at Shrewsbury School. He briefly served in the Life Guards but his increasing alcoholism caused difficulty.[5]
Robert Gould Shaw III had long had suicidal tendencies and his life mostly went adrift from an early point. In 1931, he was imprisoned for six months for homosexual offences.[6][7] His alcoholism, the Profumo affair, his mother's death, and the death of his half-brother the 3rd Viscount Astor in 1966 may have increased his suicidal tendencies.[8]
On July 10, 1970 Robert Gould Shaw III committed suicide, aged 71. He was cremated, his ashes are buried in the Octagon Temple, the estate chapel of Cliveden. John Singer Sargent did a 1923 charcoal portrait of Shaw in his military uniform. His mother gave the portrait to Alfred Edward Goodey, art collector and Shaw's partner, and it was later sold in England in 2011 for £23,000.[9]
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