Percy Shaw Jeffrey FRGS[1] (14 March 1862 Cheltenham, England – 22 February 1952) was a respected English schoolmaster and author of several books on a range of topics, including significant contributions towards the teaching of phonetics in schools.

With his wife, Alice, he retired first to South Africa, then to the town of Whitby, North Yorkshire, in 1916, where he spent his time between numerous trips to countries around the world.

For three years from 1875, he attended Trent College, Long Eaton, where he rose to become "Head of the School, proxime accessit [runner up] for the Duke of Devonshire's Gold Medal, with first-class honours in the Cambridge Local, third in the list in Latin and distinguished in French".

[2]: 29 Whilst reading for a maths scholarship at the University of Marburg, Shaw Jeffrey was offered the chance to work at Trent College, unofficially, as first the headmaster's private secretary, and then as a teacher.

[2]: 30  Unfortunately, he was unable to win the Marburg scholarship in 1881, and, left unemployed after the death of the Headmaster the year after, he took up a post as a junior master at Emanuel School, Wandsworth, soon after its move to new premises.

[2]: 34–36  Whilst at Skinners' he published words he had written for the school song, set to music by Cuthbert H. Cronk, which persist to the present day.

[2]: 38 Upon his return and owing to a shortage of officers, a short diversion from his teaching duties during 1893 saw Shaw Jeffrey join the Volunteer battalion of the Royal West Kent Regiment.

Unable to afford a new uniform (then costing £80), after a change in regiment apparel to a much more popular red-with-light-blue colour scheme, he was forced to resign his commission later that year.

He often signed himself off as "J", "an abbreviation that was and is commonly used in reference to him"[12] throughout his time at CRGS and as synonymous with the man himself that it could be used for an article about his death in the local newspaper.

In his view, however, the most striking of the phenomena, which he later recounted to the researcher and author on the subject Harry Price, was the loss of a French dictionary which was later thrown on the floor of his bedroom in the night.

[14] Shaw Jeffrey was particularly at home with modern languages, having become fluent in both French and German in the 1890s, and lectured on the topic and how it should be taught[16]–phonetically, in his opinion.

[2]: 58 On 13 August 1901, only shortly after becoming headmaster at CRGS, Shaw Jeffrey married his wife Alice,[9] whom he had met on a Mediterranean cruise,[2]: 54  and who stayed at the school throughout his time there.

The couple had just celebrated their golden wedding anniversary, a fact reported in the Essex County Standard, along with a short obituary, and an overview of the latest Old Colcestrian annual meeting (held only a day after his death), at which a variety of tributes had been paid.