Newspaper owner, editor and journalist Arthur Shenton arrived at Leschenault (Bunbury), Western Australia, on the Trusty. He settled in Perth, Western Australia, and in December 1846, on the death of Charles Macfaull (q.v.), bought into the Perth Gazette and Western Australian Journal. On 1 January 1848 he became owner and editor of the newspaper which he renamed the Perth Gazette and Independent Journal of Politics and News. He was also government printer from 1848 to 1857. In 1864 the Perth Gazette and Independent Journal of Politics and News merged with the West Australian Times becoming the Perth Gazette and West Australian Times. In 1870, with Edmund and John Stirling, proprietors of a contemporary Western Australian newspaper the Inquirer and Commercial News, Shenton became involved in an argument between a solicitor, S. H. Parker, and Chief Justice Burt of the Supreme Court of Western Australia. The three newspaper men were found guilty of contempt and fined and imprisoned. Although Shenton received public support and the prisoners were soon released on the publication of apologies, the case was detrimental to Shenton's health and he died on 16 March 1871. His obituary in the Perth Gazette and West Australian Times stated, 'his friends have at least the consolation of knowing that he died at his post, and that almost his last act was in defence of the proper privileges of the Press, and the right to criticize the acts of public men'.
Shenton's wife Mercy Shenton (q.v.) assumed ownership of the Perth Gazette and West Australian Times on Shenton's death.
Source: O. K. Battye, 'Shenton, Arthur (1816 - 1871)',
Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 6, Melbourne University Press, 1976, pp 117-118.
