Alan George Lewers Shaw (3 February 1916 – 5 April 2012) was an Australian historian and author of several text books and historiographies on Australian and Victorian history. He taught at the University of Melbourne and the University of Sydney, and was professor of history at Monash University from 1964 until his retirement in 1981.
Early life
Shaw was born in Melbourne on 3 February 1916 to George Shaw, a solicitor, and his wife Ethel née Lewers. Shaw was educated at Melbourne Grammar School, where he was on the debating team, played violin in the orchestra and was awarded the Frank Grey Smith Scholarship for Classics or Modern Languages. He entered Trinity College at the University of Melbourne in 1935, where he was president of the Dialectic Society in 1938. After graduating as a Bachelor of Arts (BA) with first-class honours in history and political science, Shaw tutored at Trinity College before leaving for further study at Christ Church, Oxford, graduating BA (later MA) with first-class honours in philosophy, politics, and economics in 1940. While there, he was a member of the Oxford Union and the Oxford University Music Society.
Academic career
Shaw returned to Australia in 1940, working for the federal Departments of Information, Army and Post-War Reconstruction. From 1941, alongside these government positions, Shaw returned to Melbourne University as part-time lecturer in economic history and tutor at Trinity College. During 1944 Shaw was appointed as joint acting dean of Trinity College, and as dean in 1947. Shaw was captain of the squash team, and vice-president of the Dialectic Society at Trinity from 1941 to 1950. In 1946, Shaw became lecturer in modern history. He was associate editor of the journal Historical Studies (now Australian Historical Studies) from 1949 to 1951, and was a member of its editorial board. In 1950 he was awarded a Nuffield Dominion Travelling Fellowship and spent a year undertaking research in England into Australia's convict period.
On his return to Australia in 1952, Shaw became senior lecturer in history at the University of Sydney, and from 1953 to 1956 was sub-warden at St Paul's College. He was the inaugural president of the History Teachers' Association of New South Wales from 1960 to 1964, and was co-editor of its journal, Teaching History. While in Sydney, he served on the council of the Royal Australian Historical Society, and was editor of their journal from 1954 to 1964. He was the first professionally trained historian to edit the journal.
In the early 1960s Shaw was called upon to adjudicate on the long-running Australian TV quiz show Pick A Box when contestant Barry Jones disputed the answer given to the question "Who was the first British Governor-General of India?".
Shaw returned to an academic position in Melbourne in 1964 as professor of modern history at Monash University, only three years after teaching commenced there. He held this post until his retirement in 1981, at which time he was granted the status of emeritus professor. He served as a member of the Monash University Council from 1977 to 1979 and again from 1989 to 1991. He was general editor of the three-volume official history of Victoria published for the state's sesquicentenary in 1984. For the Australian Academy of the Humanities and the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia he edited a series of lectures in celebration of the sesquicentenary, published as Victoria's Heritage (1986).
Reputation and service
A review of his History of the Port Phillip District (1996) thought it a "meticulously researched and carefully crafted work which Shaw's earlier writings have led us to expect." The reviewer in Australian Historical Studies noted that Shaw handed his sources "judiciously, scrupulously and respectfully," and that "in another ninety-four years, men and women will still be turning to Shaw's work with faith and confidence".
In 1987 Shaw was elected president of the Royal Historical Society of Victoria, and also served as a member of their finance, fellowship, speakers and editorial committees. Upon his resignation in 1991, the society thanked him for the "benefit of his wise counsel, erudition, discernment and gentle humour,"
Shaw helped found the Friends of the La Trobe Library, now incorporated as the State Library Foundation, and was president of the C.J. La Trobe Society from 2002 to 2003. The State Library of Victoria recognised his contributions in the naming of its annual "AGL Shaw Summer Research Scholarships". The RHSV and the La Trobe Society also conduct a joint annual A.G.L. Shaw lecture in his honour.