A. Douglas Graham was the son of Darling Downs grazier and Queensland politician William Graham, and also the younger brother of William Edward Graham (q.v.). He was educated at the Brisbane Grammar School, and then the University of Melbourne, where he attended Trinity College, graduating with a B. A. (Hons.) in 1891. On returning to Queensland, he was admitted as a solicitor in 1893, and then worked for a time as an associate for Chief Justice Sir Samuel Griffith (q. v.). He was admitted to the Queensland Bar in 1904, and subsequently practiced as a barrister in Brisbane. In 1936 he joined the newly established Faculty of Law at the University of Queensland, where he lectured in Company Law and Bankruptcy Law, and in 1937-1938 he served briefly as an acting Queensland Supreme Court judge. In addition to writing and editing various academic legal works and journals, Graham also wrote leading articles for the Brisbane press. In 1938, he gave the John Murtagh Macrossan Lecture, on the life of Sir Samuel Griffith, which was subsequently published. In his youth, Graham was a talented all round athlete, and he represented Queensland in both rugby union and tennis. He had a life-long interest in literature and the arts, he was at one point a member of the Brisbane Literary Circle, and in the 1920s and 1930s served for a number of years as president of the Brisbane Shakespeare Society. He was also a friend of Steele Rudd's, and in addition to writing occasional literary columns and other items for Steele Rudd's Magazine under the name 'Thersites', he acted as the magazine's business manager during its initial period. He might also have been the author 'A. G.', whose works appeared at intervals in Steele Rudd's Magazine and the Queenslander.
