Earnshaw was born on 23 June 1900 in
Randwick, New South Wales, the son of a noted
Sydney horse trainer and dual
Melbourne Cup winner
Isaac Earnshaw (known as Ike). He served with the
Royal Engineers in
France during
World War I. After the war, Earnshaw undertook many dangerous travels in
Papua New Guinea. He married Evelyn Hall in Sydney in 1929. The couple had four daughters. Earnshaw set up a business, Reilax Engineering, which specialised in
production-line problems. The business prospered for over 30 years in
North Sydney, New South Wales, until he retired in 1969. He invented a number of machines for filling metal and glass containers for the food,
cosmetics, chemical and
pharmaceutical manufacturing industries. For the Red Cross Blood Bank, Earnshaw devised an
oscillator for separating
plasma from blood. He was a pioneer of industrial
chromium plating in Sydney. His oil-free compressor was widely used on tractors,
graders,
road rollers and similar
earthmoving equipment. Earnshaw's spare time was filled with research into forgotten aspects of Australian history, uncovering new information about the
Scottish Martyrs, judge-advocate
David Collins, early Sydney
cabinetmakers, and John George Lang – the first Australian
short story writer. He authored several biographies for the
Australian Dictionary of Biography. In 1944, Earnshaw was a co-founder of the
Book Collectors Society of Australia, and a lifelong supporter of the society. He owned a large collection of books specialising in Australian history and literature. Most were sold at auction in 1979. He was also very active in, and a Fellow of, the
Society of Australian Genealogists. Earnshaw died on 11 October 1982. ==References==