In Search of a Hero

The speaker for the January meeting was Catherine Bettinson, talking about her search for a Hero from Korea, who was linked to her family. The search took her on several visits to various research departments in Britain as well as two trips to Korea, in search of the hero, George Lewis Shaw. In the process she uncovered distant family links to George Bernard Shaw and Ian Duncan Smith, as well as families of Japanese origin, as there were both Japanese and Korean brides in the chain. The painstaking research took Catherine about 15 years to complete, with many false trails at the start. Confusion over the birth place of G L Shaw was one problem, but eventually he was placed as born in Castle Wellan in Londonderry, not in London as at first informed. Many such inaccuracies, or lack of information hindered the research, but Catherine was not easily put off from the challenge. Just as she thought she had covered all aspects of the story she would be asked, by the Koreans to find further information. It appeared that George Lewis Shaw had been instrumental in helping Korea gain independence from Japan, although he died in Nov 1943, just 2 years before independence was finally achieved, and there was a memorial in his honour in Korea which the Koreans were keen to maintain. However, it would not do to tell the entire story here, as a screen play is to be made of the story, and one would not want to spoil the story for others who would be well advised to see the play if at all possible.
[Judy Green]