Man sitting down with hands resting together on the arm of the chair. Wearing a dark blue tie with black robes with a gold trim. Blue and murky orange background.

Sir Stephen F Burman, CBE, Hon. LLD, MA, was Pro-Chancellor 1955-66. He ran the local machinery manufacturing company Burman & Sons, and was active in local business, serving as president of the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce and Industry in 1950. His son, Roger, was Pro-Chancellor 1994-2001. Two generations of Burmans have held the Pro-Chancellorship, a record superseded only by the Beales’ three.

Hubert Freeth was born and educated in the West Midlands, where he trained as a printmaker. He showed at both the Royal Society of Painter Etchers and the Royal Watercolour Society, of which he was president 1974-76. Among his portraits in the National Portrait Gallery are those of the politician Enoch Powell and the writer Alan Silitoe.