Sir Brooke Fairbairn, Bt
Businessman, philanthropist and train enthusiast who based his company in an old railway station
SIR BROOKE FAIRBAIRN, 6th Bt, who has died aged 86, was a successful businessman and philanthropist who devoted much of his time to charitable pursuits, both nationally and locally.
James Brooke Fairbairn was born at Radlett, Hertfordshire, on December 10 1930, the elder son and one of four children of Sir William Albert Fairbairn and his wife Christine Renée Cotton Croft. The baronetcy had been created in 1869 for William Fairbairn, a prominent Scottish shipbuilder and structural engineer who also built railway locomotives.
Brooke, as he was known throughout his life, was named after Sir James Brooke, the first white Rajah of Sarawak in Borneo, whose 1838 voyage to the Far East had been sponsored by Sir William Fairbairn.
Educated at Stowe – his uncle Andrew Croft was one of the founding pupils – Fairbairn did his National Service with the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, after which he entered the haberdashery business, joining Fothergill and Harvey, Lancashire Weavers, where he stayed for 16 years.
In 1967 he set up his own business, J Brooke Fairbairn & Company, which imported and converted furnishing fabric. When the business started to grow Fairbairn had to look for suitable premises and discovered to his delight – he was a passionate railway enthusiast – that Newmarket railway station was for sale.
He bought the Victorian property, basing his company there until his retirement. Aside from his business interests Fairbairn dedicated much of his energy to his charitable and voluntary work; he was on the council of Barnardo’s for more than 30 years, and, as vice president from 1996-2000, saw the charity reach a landmark of helping more than 50,000 children. He was also vice chairman of Hampshire, Isle of Wight and Channel Islands Association for the Deaf.
His interest in this charity was as a result of his learning that two of the children of Sir Thomas Fairbairn, the second baronet, had been deaf and dumb. Fairbairn later rescued their statue from an overgrown churchyard and restored it.
From 1990 to 2002 Fairbairn was an honorary steward at Westminster Abbey. The role combined his great loves of church, ceremony and music. He led the Abbey choir school’s appeal in 1995-96 and prided himself on never missing a service.
He also took part in the state funerals of the Queen Mother and Diana, Princess of Wales – after which he remarked that the chap in spectacles really could sing and play the piano.
As a liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Weavers and its Upper Bailiff from 1992-1993, Fairbairn thoroughly enjoyed the traditions, ceremony and history of the City’s oldest livery company.
Locally, he was vice president of the Wicken Coronation Band and church warden of St Agnes Newmarket for nearly 40 years, opening the church and getting everything in order every Sunday until just months before his death.
Fairbairn’s enthusiasm for trains never waned, and after his children left home he set up a vast train set which occupied an entire bedroom in his house.
He married Mary Scott, a doctor’s daughter, in 1960. She died in 1992, after which he married Victoria Washbourn in 1997. She survives him with two sons and a daughter from his first marriage and two stepdaughters.
Sir Brooke Fairbairn, 6th Bt, born December 10 1930, died April 28 2017