Francis William Sutton Cumbrae-Stewart (1865-1938) was born on 27 January 1865 at Riversleigh, Canterbury, New Zealand to Francis Edward Stewart and Agnes (nee Park). By the time he took his Bachelor of Civil Law (B.C.L.), with third-class honours in 1897 he had adopted the surname Cumbrae-Stewart. In 1910 he was appointed foundation registrar and librarian of the new University of Queensland. His thesis, ‘Actio Pauliana : its origin, development and nautre’ won an Oxford D.C.L. (Doctor of Civil Law) in 1922. In January 1926, he became the first Chair of Law at UQ, the James Francis Garrick Professorship of Law. Cumbrae-Stewart began lecturing in Roman law, Constitutional Law, Jurisprudence and Public International Law. He was appointed King’s Counsel in 1927. He is credited with laying the foundation for the full law faculty that was set up when he retired in 1936. He died on 24 March 1938.