The founder of Davidson & Williams, Charles Conybeare, was a major figure in the economic and cultural development of Lethbridge and Alberta.

He became the City’s first lawyer and handled a wide range of civil and criminal matters for the people of Lethbridge and their families, including a steady flow of wills and inheritances. 

Charles Conybeare was born on May 19th, 1860 in Chiswick (London) England. After attending Westminster School in London and Christ Church, Oxford, he joined the British Merchant Marine.

He came to Canada in 1880 where he articled at a law firm in Winnipeg.

In December 1885 he founded his own practice, “C.F.P. Conybeare, K.C.,” in the bustling settlement of Lethbridge. He was admitted to the bar of the North-West Territories that year and appointed a notary in 1886.

He served as a crown prosecutor from 1888 to 1897.

Appointed Q.C. (Queen’s Council) in 1894, he was elected a bencher of the Law Society of the North-West Territories in 1899 and, when Alberta became a province in 1905, was founding vice-president of the Law Society of Alberta in 1907.

His commercial clients included the Canadian Pacific Railway, North-Western Coal and Navigation, Canadian North-West Irrigation, and numerous Cattle Companies.