William Shanks was born in was born in Airdrie, Scotland in 1860. He was articled to William Gardner Rowan (c.1846-1924) in Glasgow from 1882 to 1886 during which time he also attended Glasgow School of Art from 1882 to 1886. He then worked as an assistant to James Chalmers (1858-1927) from 1886 to 1889.
Shanks began working as an independent architect in Glasgow in 1889 and from 1889 to 1894 was senior partner with (?) Mitchell in the architectural practice Shanks & Mitchell. He was also Architect to the Shotts School Board for five years.
In 1889 Shanks enlisted in the Army to fight in the Anglo-Boar War and went to South Africa. After the war he remained in South Africa and in 1903 was employed as a draughtsman by Edward Baldwin John Knox (1845-1903) in Cape Town. Following Knox's death later that year, Shanks moved to the Transvaal where he worked as an architect to to Barnato Bros. in 1904 and the East Rand Proprietary Mines Ltd in 1905. From c.1905 to c.1907 he worked at the Transvaal Public Works Department. He then established his own practice with offices in Johannesburg and Pretoria.
Shanks was a member of the Glasgow Architectural Association and was elected a Licentiate of the Royal Institute of British Architects (LRIBA) in 1911.
Shanks died in Johannesburg on 5 October 1915.
Architectural projects by Shanks in Scotland included the Baptist Church in Airdrie, Lanarkshire (1890); the gate lodge and work on the estate at Polmont Park in Stirlingshire (1890); five schools for School Board in Shotts, Lanarkshire (1891); an ironworks in Denny, Stirlingshire (late 1890s); the Paulville Township - 56 houses in Bathgate, West Lothian (late 1890s); over 40 tenaments in Glasgow (late 1890s); three paperworks in Denny, Stirlingshire (late 1890s); and a primary school in Rochsolloch, Lanarkshire (late 1890s). Projects by Shanks in South Africa included an annex to Loretto Convent in Pretoria (pre-1912); St Patrick's Church in La Rochelle, Pretoria (pre-1912); and St Alphonsus Monastery and Priests' House in Pretoria.
Directory of British Architects 1834-1914. Compiled by Antonia Brodie, et al. Volume 2: L-Z. London; New York: British Architectural Library, Royal Institute of British Architects/Continuum, 2001
‘Obituary’. Royal Institute of British Architects vol. 23, 4 December 1915 p. 56