Christopher Irving Shaw was born in Aylesbury in about 1826, and was living in Walton Street, Aylesbury, in 1851, when he was working as a printer. In 1860 he married Maria Jackson and the following year he was lodging in Luton, and was described as a gentleman. Three Children were born in Aylesbury - Christopher Jackson Shaw in 1862, Agnes Maria Jackson in 1864 and Edwin Irving Shaw in 1865. At least between 1854 and 1867 he was actively involved in local politics, attending meeting to express views on subjects such as abstinence, pacifism, parliamentary reform, religion and the establishment of British Schools. (Many reports mentioning him by name in the Bucks Herald.)

SHAW - On the 3rd inst., in Walton, the wife of Mr. C. I. Shaw of a son. Bucks Herald, 8 November, 1862

SHAW - on the 20th inst, the wife of Mr. C. I. Shaw, Walton, of a son, stillborn. Bucks Herald. 30 March 1867

There is nothing to directly indicate why Christopher switched from being a printer in 1851 into photography by 1869. However as a printer in Aylesbury in the 1850s he would undoubtedly known of John Gibbs and the Bucks Advertiser newspaper edited by Robert Gibbs (who would have employed a printer) - and the meetings he attended suggests he had very similar political views to the Gibbs family. He also was actively involved with the Aylesbury Mechanics Institute, where another member (and relative of the Gibbs family) was the photographer Samuel Glendenning Payne.

While in Aylesbury he was actively involved with the Aylesbury Mechanics Institute. Other active members of the Institute were my great grandfather, John Locke, and  Samuel Glendenning Payne - the leading Aylesbury photographer at the time.

He is firts recorded as working as a photographer in Watford in 1869 and at the time of the 1871 census he was living in Station Road, Watford, and trading as a photographer. A son, Herbert Irving Shaw, was born in Watford towards the end on 1871. In 1872 he also opened a studio in the High Street, Hemel Hempstead.	Watford Observer, 5 June, 1869
Hemel Hempstead Gazette, 23 November, 1872

The 1874 directory lists him at both Watford and Hemel Hempstead. By 1878 the trade directory shows he was now operating from the High Street and Marlowes in Hemel Hempstead - and apparently was no longer working in Watford. Hemel Hempstead Gazette 18 January 1879

		This Carte de Visite has no name for the subject but came from the same dealer as the "McParty" picture and may have come from the same family. Can you name her.