Francis Cumbrae-Stewart was the foundation registrar and librarian of the new University of Queensland from 1910. In 1926 Cumbrae-Stewart became Garrick Professor of Law. He was also President of the Queensland branch of the Dickens Fellowship, Chairman of the Queensland Place Names Committee, Vice-President of the Queensland Authors and Artists Association, a founder and trustee of the Oxley Library and a member of both the Royal and the Royal Geographical societies of Queensland.

Impact On Brisbane Society

Francis Cumbrae-Stewart was educated at Melbourne and Geelong Church of England Grammar schools, and at Christ Church, Oxford, where he read in modern history. Cumbrae-Stewart was a significant example how Melbourne cultural thought came to Queensland. In his Victorian legal practice, Cumbrae-Stewart read with Henry Bournes Higgins and Sir Edward Mitchell. Cumbrae-Stewart’s Oxford thesis was ‘Actio Pauliana; its origin development and nature’, meaning a claim by a creditor against a third party to rescind any transfer of property made to the third party by the debtor done to frustrate enforcement of the creditor’s debt. It is an indication of how his mind worked as a higher education administrator.

Citations

Harrison Bryan, ‘Cumbrae-Stewart, Francis William Sutton (1865–1938)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/cumbrae-stewart-francis-william-sutton-5841/text9925, published first in hardcopy 1981, accessed online 4 July 2019.

Gregory, Helen. Vivant Professores: Distinguished Members of the University of Queensland, 1910-1940, University of Queensland Library, St. Lucia Qld, 1987.

Image Citation

Professor Francis William Sutton Cumbrae-Stewart, Accession number: 00-2-4. (2005). State Library of Queensland