Sir George Fairbairn was a pastoralist, politician, company director and oarsman.
George was born in 1855, the son of George Fairbairn and Virginia Charlotte Armytage.[1] His brothers were Charles Fairbairn (1858-1925), pastoralist and oarsman, Frederick William Fairbairn (1865-1925), pastoralist, Red Cross director and sportsman, James Fairbairn (1856-1891), medical practitioner, Thomas Fairbairn (1860-1918), pastoralist, and Stephen Fairbairn.
George was educated from 1864 to 1871 at Geelong Church of England Grammar School; Charles attended in 1868-75 and Frederick in 1880-84.
For some years George managed Peak Downs and Barcaldine stations in Queensland for his father. In the early 1880s he returned to Victoria and joined William, Sloane & Co., stock and station agents, and in 1886 became manager of the Union Mortgage & Agency Co. of Australia Ltd. In 1890 he took over the family property of Lara, where he at once established a merino stud and in 1900 a Shropshire stud. Later he acquired Benarca, near Deniliquin, New South Wales, and Greenlaw, Mount Martha, Victoria. His business interests increased, and he was a director of the Union Trustee Co. of Australia Ltd for more than forty years, chairman for more than thirty of the British & Foreign Marine Insurance Co, Ltd., chairman until 1925 of the Victorian board of advice of Dalgety & Co., a director of the Australian Mutual Provident Society and head of the family firm of G. & C. Fairbairn.
On 24 November 1880 at St John's Church of England, Toorak, Melbourne, he married Jessie Kate Prell; they had a son and a daughter. His wife died in 1921.
In 1903 Fairbairn was elected to the Legislative Assembly seat of Toorak which he held until 1906 when he resigned to contest the newly created seat of Fawkner in the Federal House of Representatives. He lost that seat in the redistribution of 1913, but in 1917 was elected to the Senate.
In 1924, George Fairbairn married Lorna Bessie Robertson at the Presybyterian Church in Mornington. [2]
He passed away in 1943, aged 88.[3]
BIRTH NOTICE. At the Hermitage, on Friday, 23rd instant, Mrs Geo. Fairbairn, of Couqbool River, Glenelg, of a son. Geelong Advertiser and Intelligencer (Vic. : 1851 - 1856) Mon 26 Mar 1855, Page 3: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/91860347
DEATH NOTICE. FAIRBAIRN.—On October 23, at 3 Como avenue, South Yarra, Sir George Fairbairn, in his 89th year. The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957) Mon 25 Oct 1943, Page 2: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/11802397
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