[5] Shire was the father-in-law of Sayyid Mohammed Abdullah Hassan, whose Dervish movement fought a two-decade long war against British, Italian and Ethiopian forces.

[9] During the subsequent power struggle between Hassan's Dervishes and British forces, Shire decided to throw the Warsangali's lot with the former polity.

[10] After a quarter of a century of holding British forces at bay, the Dervishes were finally defeated in 1920 as a direct consequence of Britain's new policy of aerial bombardment.

[12] According to Wardheer News, his "independent policy, strength and indifference to the powers surrounding him, including the British [had] vexed London and led to his arrest and deportation".

[5] At the time of his arrival on the Seychelles archipelago, a number of other prominent anti-imperialist leaders were also exiled there, including Sa'ad Zaghloul Pasha, the former Prime Minister of Egypt, with whom Sultan Shire would soon develop a rapport.

Under the leasing agreement, the renting party was allowed to collect coconuts, gather water from the river, and keep poultry and pigs.

[18] Besides emphasising that he simply wanted to rejoin his wife and children and asserting that he did not wish to be Sultan, Shire swore that he had disavowed his earlier political beliefs and promised to recognise the authority of the British government.

[17] In order to avoid engendering anti-colonial sentiments, the colonial government imposed edicts which censored letters that exiled individuals sent to their family and compatriots back home.

Shire regularly found a way around these controls by utilizing Somali sailors as couriers, with one of these missives arriving in British Somaliland via Ceylon.

[5] In an unusual move for a policeman, the officer later penned a letter in which he urged the Governor to reconsider, writing about Shire that: "This man is still young and full of life.