Mary P. Shaw was the daughter of Dr. Patrick Shaw, a doctor at Ararat, associated with the mental hospital there and his wife, Jenny. The Shaw family came from County Armagh in Northern Ireland from a religious background of Scottish dissent. They were Presbyterians. Mary Shaw's grandparents were George Shaw and Eliza McKay who married in 1869 and had eleven children. Mary Shaw has been a professional woman associated with child care in Melbourne. She also made a major contribution to an anthology, Baraiyo : Australian essays, stories, verse (1962).
