Son of George and Eliza (nee McKay) Shaw.  Born in South Melbourne on 1 January 1874.  Moved with family to Tullyvallin, 108 Wellington Parade, East Melbourne in 1882.  Educated at Scotch College, East Melbourne.  Studied medicine at Edinburgh University, gaining L.R.C.P et S. following which he trained in obstetrics at the Rotunda Hospital, Dublin.  He returned to Tullyvallin in 1905.  While in Edinburgh he had met Janet (Jenny) Steedman Denholm who followed him to Melbourne and they married in 1906 at Tullyvallin.  They moved to Ararat where Patrick had got a position as junior resident medical officer at the Ararat Mental Hospital.  Eighteen months later he was transferred to a similar  position at Kew Mental Hospital in Melbourne.  He was appalled at the conditions there and after a patient died of what he considered neglect and mistreatment he mounted a court case against the Victorian Government.  There was much publicity and he was heavily criticised but he won the case.  Meanwhile the war had started and he was encouraged to enlist by his senior medical officer who thought it would be advantageous to have him out of the way, presuming the war would be over in six months.

He applied for a commission on 1 January 1916 and embarked at Melbourne on 16 March 1916 per H.M.A.T. Orsova for Egypt.  He camped at Tel-el-Kebir during a particularly hot summer.  He again got himself into trouble with his superiors by recommending that blankets should be aired during the day by draping them over the tents.  This would also serve to keep the tents cooler.  He was then transferred to a camp on the Salisbury Plains in England.  Here the winter was bitterly cold and Patrick was admitted to hospital with suspected Spanish Flu, but recovered.  He worked thereafter at hospitals in England. He embarked for Australia on 31 December 1918 per Saxon.  In Australia his period of enlistment was terminated  on 3 March 1919.  However he was compulsorily appointed to Fairfield Infectious Diseases Hospital to treat victims of the Spanish Flu.  Because the disease was so contagious he and other hospital staff had to remain in isolation, so it was not until 1920 that he was able to rejoin his family, by now living in Kew.  Again he was appointed to Ararat Mental Hospital and then to Ballarat, where he died unexpectedly in 1932.