Meritorious Service Record

George Lewis Shaw was born on January 25, 1880, on Pagoda Island, Fuzhou, Fujian Province, China, to an Irish-British father, Samuel Lewis Shaw, and a Japanese mother, Ellen Oh. His Korean name was So Ji-young (蘇志英).
From May 1919, Shaw operated Yilong Trading Company (怡隆洋行) in Antung, Liaoning Province, China, providing shelter and logistical support for Korean independence activists.
On July 11, 1920, he was arrested in Sinuiju for allegedly lacking a passport and was charged with aiding an insurrection. He was detained for over four months, but due to strong protests from the British government, he was released on November 19, 1920, after paying a 1,500-won bail, which was later refunded.
The Japanese authorities accused Shaw of the following crimes:
- Allowing Korean independence activists, including members of the Korean Provisional Government and the Korean Youth Corps, to use his residence, store, and warehouse in Antung from July 1919 to July 1920.
- Providing his ships to transport independence fighters, weapons, ammunition, and anti-Japanese literature between Shanghai and Antung.
- Warning activists about Japanese police operations, enabling them to evade capture.
- Offering strategic advice to Korean independence leaders.
- Transferring funds raised in Korea to the Provisional Government in Shanghai via personal checks.
- Receiving and safeguarding important documents and shipments sent by the Korean Provisional Government under his name for security reasons.
Japan attempted to prosecute Shaw under "treason laws," linking him to Korean independence leaders Yi Dong-hwi (李東輝) and Yi Dong-nyeong (李東寧). However, after a special review by the High Court, Japanese Prosecutor Nakamura Takezo (中村竹藏) dropped the charges on March 7, 1924. The court dismissed the case on March 12, 1924, bringing an end to the legal proceedings.
On January 26, 1921, when he visited Shanghai, he attended a welcome banquet hosted by key figures of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea, including Syngman Rhee and Ahn Chang-ho, and received the Golden Medal for Merit from the Provisional Government. Together with those figures, he discussed the revival of the Andong Transportation Office. In March, he hired Kim Moon-gyu (金文奎), who had resigned from the Chinese Maritime Customs and was planning to go to Shanghai, as an employee of Ilyungyanghaeng to rebuild the Andong Transportation Office. Until his arrest by Japanese police in August 1922, Kim Moon-gyu made significant contributions to the normalization of the Andong Transportation Office's functions, including the transport, protection, and introduction of independence activists, the transport of weapons, secret communication and intelligence gathering between the Provisional Government and independence organizations, delivery of various Provisional Government documents and promotional materials, and the delivery of independence bonds and military funds.
In March 1923, Hwang Ok (黃鈺) and Kim Si-hyeon (金始顯) of the Korean Heroic Corps (Uiyeoldan) used Shaw’s network to smuggle documents and weapons into Korea. In December 1923, Chang In-su (張燐洙), Kim Yong-won (金庸元), and Im Deok-san (林得山), all key figures in the Korean Provisional Government, used Yilong Trading Company’s ships to transport explosives and weapons between Shanghai and Antung. Shaw also coordinated weapons and ammunition deliveries for independence organizations in Manchuria.
In early 1924, Shaw provided Mauser pistols to Pak Chang-yeol (朴昌烈) and Kim Gyu-il (金奎一), operatives of the Korean Independence Army's Tongui-bu faction.
After Japan's invasion of Manchuria in 1931, Shaw faced increased Japanese repression. Unable to withstand continued persecution, he relocated the headquarters of Yilong Trading Company from Antung to Fuzhou, Fujian Province, in May 1938.
George Lewis Shaw passed away on November 13, 1943, in Fuzhou, China.
In 1963, the South Korean government posthumously awarded George Lewis Shaw the Order of Merit for National Foundation (Independence Medal) in recognition of his contributions to Korea’s independence.