He was a Lieutenant in the 95th regiment of the British Army from 1853 to 1861, seeing action on Deesa, India in 1854, the Crimea 1855, Lucknow 1857, Hunker 1858, Burugain, Sandi and Ruiya 1859.
[2] Graham was a member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly, Member for Maranoa, and of the Queensland and Australian Clubs, and also a frequent guest of the governor Sir George Bowen and his wife Diamantina at Government House, Brisbane, they being of similar age and close friends.
[2] His daughter and heiress Nina was travelling around Europe, when she employed as a paid companion one Barbara Stephen, who had recently been abandoned by her husband, with a new baby to look after.
The baby was christened Ninian, after Nina, who paid for his early schooling in Edinburgh, London, Montreux, and Melbourne.
Sir Ninian Stephen was told his father had died, and did not discover until 2003 that he had in fact moved to Canada and started a new family there.