Shearer, (Edgar) Donald (Reid) (1909–99), sportsman and soldier, was born 6 June 1909 at Harrow-on-the-Hill, Middlesex, son of a London agent of the Derry textile firm, Lindsay Brothers, who died while Shearer was a young boy. He was educated at Aldenham School, where he excelled at soccer and cricket. On completing his education he was sent by his mother to Northern Ireland to learn the shirt trade at Lindsay Brothers, where he was later to become a director and, subsequently, managing director of the company.
The pattern for Shearer's remarkable sporting career was established in Ulster. While playing rugby union for the City of Derry club, he was asked to sign for the newly established Derry City football club. He agreed, on condition that the English amateur side, Casuals and Corinthians, retained first call on his soccer-playing services. It was with Casuals and Corinthians that he won a 1936 FA Cup amateur medal. He also won seven caps for England as an amateur, and played for Great Britain at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. He scored 78 goals while playing for Derry City (1931–9) and also represented the Irish League XI, most famously in Blackpool in 1936 when they defeated their English counterparts.
Shearer was also a fine cricketer who played his club games for the Northern Ireland Cricket Club. He represented the Gentlemen of Ireland side on over 30 occasions (1933–52), including some matches in 1949 as captain. A versatile right-handed batsman who could either open the batting or play down the order, he scored fifty against the 1938 touring Australian side that included in its attack the legendary Bill O'Reilly. He scored two centuries for Ireland, one in 1937 (which was then a record for the fastest ever Irish century) and the other at Lord's in 1951 against the MCC. In all he scored 1,300 runs from 58 innings for Ireland, averaging 23.42. In 1966 he acted as president of the Irish Cricket Union, and later served for a time as chairman of the Northern Ireland sports council. In the early 1970s he was president of Cliftonville Football and Athletic club, as well as vice-chairman of the National Playing Fields Association.
In 1929 Shearer joined the Territorial Army in London as a private. In 1937 he was commissioned into the first TA unit to be formed in Northern Ireland, 188 (Antrim) Heavy Battery. During the early part of the second world war he passed the first war staff gunnery course and was appointed instructor in gunnery at the coastal artillery school in Co. Antrim. After a further period as chief instructor in searchlights, he was sent to the Middle East, where he served with 8th Army. He was mentioned in dispatches while commanding 575 Coast Regiment and later, in 1944, when he commanded the Tobruk garrison. In 1945, as a colonel, he served on the staff of GHQ Middle East and was awarded the OBE.
He returned to Northern Ireland after the war, where he reformed 429 (Antrim) Coast Regiment as part of the TA. In 1958 he was appointed deputy commander of 107 (Ulster) Infantry Brigade Group (TA); in the same year he became honorary colonel of 146 (Antrim Artillery) Field Engineer Regiment. He was an ADC to Queen Elizabeth II (1960–69). In 1974 he was advanced to the level of CBE. He died 9 July 1999 in England.
He married (1935) Hester Helena (1911–99), daughter of Thomas Fitzpatrick Cooke and Aileen Frances Cooke (née Babbington); they had three daughters.