Archibald John Shaw

Archibald John Shaw (16 December 1872 – 26 August 1916) was an Australian Catholic priest and radio pioneer.

Early life
Shaw was born on 16 December 1872 in Adelong, New South Wales. He was the fourth child born to Catherine (née Scanlon) and Charles William Shaw. His father was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, and arrived in Australia in 1849. He initially worked as a miner and later ran a hotel in Adelong.

Shaw was orphaned as a child following the deaths of his father in 1876 and his mother in 1880. He and his siblings were raised by relatives and he attended the public school in Tumut. A childhood operation left him with a permanent limp. After leaving school he worked for periods at a timber mill and at the Goulburn Post Office.

Missionary activities and priesthood
After unsuccessfully applying to join the Passionists, Shaw was sent to British New Guinea in 1894 as a lay missionary with the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart. He was stationed at the mission on Yule Island and taught English to Belgian, Dutch and French students at the seminary while undertaking his novitiate. He acted as personal secretary and translator for the mission's head Louis-André Navarre. He was formally admitted to the order in 1896, but returned to Sydney the following year to train for the priesthood under the tutorship of Francis Xavier Gsell.

Shaw was ordained as a Catholic priest in 1900 and was appointed assistant procurator under Gsell in the same year. One of his first tasks was to act as chaplain to Boer War soldiers camped at Randwick Racecourse awaiting departure to South Africa. He lived at the Sacred Heart Monastery in Sydney until 1908, when he moved to a house in Randwick. As assistant procurator he was responsible for "finding money not only to keep the three Pacific missions in food, clothing and medical supplies, but also to build convents, churches, presbyteries, dispensaries and schools".

Radio work
Shaw became interested in radio as a way to raise funds for missionary activities. He may have been influenced by Father Joseph Slattery's activities at Bathurst. After studying and experimenting with wireless telegraphy for a number of years, in 1910 he obtained a wireless experimentation licence. He subsequently constructed a 240 ft radio tower in his backyard which was capable of transmitting messages over 2000 mi.

Shaw's role as assistant procurator had allowed him to develop ties in Sydney's business community. He developed a friendship with Edward Hope Kirkby, who ran a small business manufacturing electrical appliances. In 1911 he went into partnership with Kirby, who floated the Maritime Wireless Company with Shaw as president. Their partnership was based upon Shaw provided design expertise and Kirkby providing production. Their factory at Randwick, known as the Randwick Wireless Works or Shaw Wireless Works, eventually had up to 170 employees.

The creation of Maritime Wireless coincided with the federal government's plans for a system of land-based wireless stations along the Australian coastline for shipping and defence purposes. In 1911, the Fisher government awarded Maritime Wireless contracts to establish 17 coastal wireless stations, favouring the local manufacturer over bids from the Marconi Company (represented by Ernest Fisk) and Telefunken. In 1912, Shaw was granted a patent for his airblast "spark gap" system. He was threatened with lawsuits by Marconi and Telefunken alleging patent infringement, and similar allegations from John Graeme Balsillie.

By 1914, Shaw's personal finances had become interwoven with those of the Sacred Heart mission and the Wireless Works. He soon faced a liquidity crisis, in part caused by his acceptance of payments in shares from creditors rather than cash. In response to the mission's financial difficulties, Pope Benedict XV despatched a special visitator, Robert Linckens, to investigate the situation. Linckens concluded that Shaw had technically embezzled money totalling £8,700 from the mission by using cheques from the Vatican to buy machinery for the Wireless Works, ultimately intending that the mission be repaid via dividends from Maritime Wireless.

With his authority from the Vatican, Linckens ordered Shaw to sell the mission's wireless assets – including the Wireless Works and Shaw's patents – in order to repay the funds he had embezzled. Shaw offered the assets to the Postmaster-General's Department for £60,000, but was unable to negotiate a deal. With assistance from Tasmanian senator James Long, he subsequently brokered a deal with navy minister Jens Jensen, whose department had assumed responsibility for wireless infrastructure following the outbreak of World War I. The Department of the Navy ultimately acquired the assets in July 1916 for £55,000.

Death and aftermath
While visiting Melbourne, Shaw died of a cerebral haemorrhage on 26 August 1916, aged 43. He was buried at Randwick cemetery in Sydney.

After Shaw's death, the 1918 royal commission into defence administration during World War I found that Shaw had bribed Long to facilitate the government's acquisition of the wireless assets. Long admitted receiving a payment of £1,290 from Shaw for "services rendered" and subsequently resigned from the Senate. Jensen was also implicated in the scandal and dismissed from the ministry, although he denied receiving any payments.