Captain G. Shakerley
(1833-1915)
19 June 1863

Volume 10, page 301, sitting number 13,573.

Geoffrey Joseph Shakerley was the eldest son of Geoffrey Joseph Shakerley (1800-1878) of Whatcroft Hall Mansion in Cheshire, and the older brother of Miss Dora Shakerley, the sitter listed opposite. He appears on the 1851 census, a 'Gentleman Cadet' at Woolwich. At the time of the census he was 18 years old, so he was born in or about 1833. His place of birth is given as Whatcroft in Cheshire.

According to Hart's Army List (1863-64), 2nd Captain Geoffrey Joseph Shakerley enlisted in the Royal Artillery on 23 June 1852. He rose from 2nd Lieutenant to 1st Lieutenant on 17 February 1854 and on 1 April 1859 he was promoted Captain. He served in the Crimea from June 1855 and was present at the Siege and Fall of Sebastopol. According to Hart’s Army List (1874), Captain Shakerley retired on an annuity on 23 September 1871. He is mentioned in successive years of the publication until 1904.

At the time of the 1891 census, Geoffrey Shakerley, 'late Captain [in the] Royal Artillery,' was living at Butterton Hall at Trentham in Staffordshire with his wife, Emma, six daughters and two young sons. Also present on the night of the census were fourteen live-in servants (with more in out-buildings) and a governess.

By 1901 he was a widower, ‘living on [his] own means’ at Grove Park Mansion, Budbrooke in Warwickshire. Also present on the night of the census were six unmarried daughters and two sons; the elder, also called Geoffrey, was a Captain in the 60th Rifles (Royal Rifle Corps). According to an announcement in the Times (24 May 1915), this son, by now a Major, was killed in action during the First World War. At this point in time, Captain Geoffrey Joseph Shakerley was still alive and living at Weddington Hall, in Nuneaton. A second son, Arthur, according to another announcement in the Times, served in the Royal Field Artillery and was killed in action on 22 April 1917. This announcement refers to the father as ‘the late Geoffrey Shakerley’ and mentions another, third son, Eric, who was also killed in action in 1915.

Geoffrey Joseph Shakerley died, aged 82, on 18 November 1915 at St Ann's Hotel in Buxton, Derbyshire. He left effects valued at £20,036.