Thomas Fairbairn

Sir Thomas Fairbairn, 2nd Baronet DL (18 January 1823 – 12 August 1891) was an English industrialist and art collector.

Early life Fairbairn was born in the Polygon in Ardwick, near the centre of Manchester. He was the third of eight surviving children of Dorothy Mar and Sir William Fairbairn (1789–1874). His father was a Scottish engineer who moved to Manchester in the early 19th century, where he designed bridges, and established a business, William Fairbairn & Sons, that was involved in iron founding, boilermaking, ship building, and manufacturing steam locomotives. He was a nephew of Peter Fairbairn of Leeds - also an engineer like his brother - and first cousin of MP Andrew Fairbairn.

Many of his pictures were auctioned off in the 1890s, and the remainder of the collection was broken up after his death from a stroke.

Personal life On 23 March 1848, he married Allison Callaway, a daughter of Thomas Callaway, and settled back in Manchester. In around 1862, he moved to Burton Park, near Petworth in Sussex, but moved to Brambridge House, in Bishopstoke near Southampton, by 1866. Thomas and Allison were the parents of at least five children together, two of whom (his son Arthur and daughter Constance), were born deaf. Their children included:

Sir Arthur Henderson Fairbairn, 3rd Baronet (1852–1915), who married Florence Frideswyde Long, daughter of Richard Penruddocke Long, in 1882. Sir Thomas Gordon Fairbairn, 4th Baronet (1854–1931), who married Ada Maria Fairbairn, daughter of William Andrew Fairbairn, in 1877. After her death in 1893, he married Jennie Cora Davies, a daughter of Albert Davies, in 1899. Reginald Fairbairn (1856–1921), who married May Elizabeth Holt, a daughter of J. F. Holt, in 1880. Mary Allison Dorothy Fairbairn (1860–1936), who married Sir Archibald Milliken Napier, 10th Baronet, son of Sir Robert Milliken-Napier, 9th Baronet, in 1880. James Brooke Fairbairn (b. 1863), a Captain in the Durham Light Infantry.

He died in Bishopstoke, Hampshire, on 12 August 1891 and was buried at Twyford church. He was succeeded in the baronetcy by his son, Arthur.