Walter Shaw

SHAW, Walter Bernard (1864-1941)

Walter Bernard Shaw was born in Elsternwick, Victoria on September 30,1864, the fourth son of civil servant Walter Stephen Shaw and his wife Anna Charlotte Shaw (nee Hayes). Walter’s father was one of the 15 children of Bernard Shaw who was the grandfather of George Bernard Shaw. Walter Shaw was thus a first cousin of George Bernard Shaw. An uncle of both, Edward Carr Shaw, had the misfortune to be on the vessel Rockingham in 1830 when it was wrecked in Western Australia having sailed here as part of the Peel Scheme. Their uncle very quickly decided to settle in Tasmania.

Walter Shaw grew up in the villa “Hiskin” in Elsternwick (St Kilda) and attended St Stephen’s Grammar school in Richmond, matriculating in 1880. His early engineering and surveying career included working on railways in Victoria under Sir John Monash and later surveying in New Zealand. In 1894, John Muir recruited him from Victoria with Messrs Anketell, Babington, Henderson, Moss, Campbell and Schmide to undertake the survey of the Southern Cross to Coolgardie railway line. His PWD contract also included surveying the Mullewa to Cue railway line.

Between 1897 and 1899, after leaving the Western Australian Public Service, Shaw set up in partnership with architect E E Giles as a surveyor and engineer. From 1899 he was managing companies quarrying of building materials such as the Federal Quarrying Co. and the Granite Quarrying Co. In 1903 he founded and was editor of the Western Australian Mining, Building and Engineering Journal.

He travelled to Victoria to marry Annie Elizabeth Kate Cook at Hawthorn on February 28, 1904 and returned to Western Australia. His only child, Flora Mansfield Shaw, was born at Claremont on September 23, 1906.

In 1904 he was elected as Secretary of the Builders and Contractors Association. He was again elected as the Secretary of the Builders and Contractors Association in 1908, a position he then held continuously until he resigned in 1924, giving outstanding service to the association.

Walter Shaw was a key figure in the formation of the Western Australian Institution of Engineers (WAIE), taking on the role of acting secretary at the foundation meeting convened on July 16, 1909. Shaw canvassed engineers in WA at the time, and showed that over one hundred of them would join a broader engineering body. He assisted with developing rules and a constitution, and these were adopted unanimously at the inaugural meeting of the new body on October 5, 1909.

Shaw’s importance in the formation of the WAIE is reinforced by the fact that the inaugural meeting, scheduled for September, was delayed to October 5 so that he could attend. WAIE was formally incorporated on November 6, 1911 after W B Shaw advertised widely during August 1911. Shaw held the position of Secretary of WAIE from 1909 to 1919.

In January 1910 Shaw was invited to a formation meeting on the Institution of Surveyors to advise on the incorporation process. He was subsequently elected Secretary and filled that role from 1910 to 1918. Shaw was also a foundation member of the Town Planning Association of WA when it was formed in 1916 and was elected to its inaugural council.

In 1916 Walter Shaw was concurrently Secretary of WAIE, Secretary of the Builders and Contractors Association WA, Secretary of the Institution of Surveyors WA, Secretary of the Associated Societies and Arts, and Councillor of the Town Planning Association of WA.

W B Shaw and H T Haynes from WAIE were members of the Institution of Engineers Australian Provisional Council that met in Sydney in May 1918 to help form the national engineering association.

In the 1920’s Shaw was a member of both the Executive Council of the WA Mining Association and the State Council Red Cross Emergency Committee. When he retired as Secretary of the Builders and Contractors Association in 1924 he was given £50, a very significant sum of money in those days.

In 1937 his daughter, Flora Mansfield Shaw, married automotive engineer, Eric Hugh Lockey Whittaker. Flora was an accomplished pianist and music teacher who shared a passion for golf with her new husband. In 1939, W B Shaw’s wife, Annie, died at Claremont at the age of 72. W B Shaw died at Nedlands on August 15, 1941, aged 76. He was survived by his only child Flora Whittaker.

W B Shaw had a significant role in the formation and early operation of a plethora of organisations. He was a skilled negotiator and a very capable chair of public meetings. He was heavily involved in the repatriation of World War 1 soldiers and a regular donor to public causes.

Select Bibliography

Charles McMahon Shaw, Bernard’s Brethren, Constable London, 1939 (C M Shaw was W B Shaw’s brother)
Dr John J Taylor, Ernest Edward Giles, December 2013 accessed from: https://www.taylorarchitects.com.au/Biographies/EE%20Giles%20for%20AIA%20(WA).pdf
Daily News, Bernard Shaw’s Links with Australia, May 28, 1932, Page 12