The University of Melbourne's prestigious Queen's College council has rebuked one of its former leaders for helping set up The Family, saying it "strongly deplores" Dr Raynor Johnson's seminal role in the notorious cult.

Dr Johnson was an eminent British physicist from Leeds who moved to Melbourne and became master of Queen's College in 1934.

Dr Raynor Johnson has been criticised by his former college for his role in The Family.

But in 1962, aged 61, he met Anne Hamilton-Byrne, a yoga teacher who would soon, with his help, start The Family.

In one of Victoria's darkest child abuse episodes, the cult imprisoned, mistreated and starved 14 children at Lake Eildon until 1987 when they were freed by police.