George Bernard Shaw ( 1856–1950 ) by Augustus John , 1915 Shaw, George Bernard ( 1856–1950 ), playwright and polemicist , was born on 26 July 1856 at 3 Upper Synge Street (later 33 Synge Street), Dublin. He was the third and youngest child, and only son, of George Carr Shaw (1815–1885) , a pensioned law-court clerk and failing corn merchant, and Lucinda Elizabeth, née Gurly (1830–1913) , daughter of Walter Bagnall Gurly , an impoverished country gentleman of co. Carlow. On his father's side Sonny , as Shaw was known as a child, came from the fading