Sir Samuel Walker Griffith (1845-1920), premier of Queensland and chief justice of Australia, was one of the ablest advocates of the federation of the Australian colonies and one of the greatest jurists produced by Australia in the 19th century.

Samuel Griffith was born at Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales, on June 21, 1845, the son of Edward Griffith and his wife, Mary Walker Griffith. Edward Griffith was a Congregational minister who migrated with his family to Queensland in 1854. The family finally settled in Brisbane in 1860.

Samuel Griffith was educated at the University of Sydney, where he received a baccalaureate in 1863 with first-class honors in classics, mathematics, and natural science. In 1865 he was awarded the T. S. Mort traveling fellowship and visited Europe, where he became fascinated with Italy and developed the interest and skill in the Italian language which flowered in his widely acclaimed translations of The Inferno of Dante Alighieri...