Archibald Shaw

Archdeacon Archibald Shaw (8 June 1879 – 1956) was a pioneer missionary amongst the Dinka people with the Gordon Memorial Sudan Mission of the Church Missionary Society (CMS) in southern Sudan in the first half of the 20th century.

An Englishman by origin

Archibald Shaw was born on 8 June 1879 in Birmingham. His father was Walter Shaw, manufacturer of Machine Tools who was described as "a man of integrity" and a Christian. His mother was Julia Waterhouse of Billesley Hall, Kings Heath, Worcestershire before her marriage. Archibald was one of five children - 2 sons and 3 daughters. Archibald Shaw was a proud Englishman whose conversion to Christ led him to love and serve Africans.

Education and calling

Shaw was educated at Bromsgrove School, Emmanuel College, and Ridley Hall, Cambridge, and ordained by the Bishop of Bath and Wells in 1903 serving his curacy at Walcot, Bath. But it lasted only 2 years for he soon began his distinguished missionary career.

He was accepted for missionary service in the pioneer work of the Gordon Memorial Sudan Mission of the Church Missionary Society (C.M.S.) in 1904. C.M.S. was one of the societies invited by Lord Cromer, the British resident in Egypt, to begin work in the Southern region of the Sudan.