He came from the Caribbean and made history in Canada: Robert Sutherland graduated from Queen’s University in 1852 and went on to become British North America’s first black lawyer.

Today, Queen’s Law honours his name through the Robert Sutherland Fellowship in Law, which supports graduate students from Sutherland’s home region of the Caribbean to come and study at the Faculty of Law.

The Fellowship, established early in 2015, is the product of a collaboration between Dean Bill Flanagan and several alumni, including Frank Walwyn, Law’93, David Berry, LLM’93, and Gary Batasar, Law’96.

The Fellowship is named for Sutherland, who was the first black graduate of an Ontario university in 1852, and went on to a notable career in law and ultimately to save Queen’s University itself through a $12,000 bequest that prevented the university from being annexed in the late 1800s.

Since Sutherland hailed from the Caribbean, the purpose of the Fellowship is to establish funds to support graduate students from that region. For Walwyn, it is a compelling way to recognize both Queen’s Law and the importance Sutherland played in the institution’s history.

"My time at Queen's played an extremely positive role in my preparation for the practice of law and my professional life,” Walwyn says. “I take great pride in my Caribbean roots and value tremendously the lessons learned growing up there – but I will always cherish the drive for excellence that Queen's instilled in me, and the warmth and loyalty of the Queen's community that we as Queen's students experience beyond graduation and throughout our professional lives."

As the Fellowship fundraising nears its goal of $100,000, Dean Bill Flanagan is pleased with the level of alumni support for this cause. “Queen’s Law has some strong ties to the Caribbean, and particularly to the University of the West Indies, where one of our graduates, David Berry, LLM’93, is serving as Dean. Strengthening our ties is a great asset to Queen’s Law,” he says.

Contributions to the fund can be made directly at www.givetoqueens.ca/sutherland. As with all Queen’s funds, donations are recognized in the annual faculty magazine, Queen’s Law Reports, as well as on the faculty donor wall once a certain threshold is reached.