Military After leaving school, Fairbairn attended
Royal Military College Sandhurst, and was commissioned as a
second lieutenant in the
Royal Horse Guards on 11 November 1914. He was posted to France on 19 May 1915, having just been promoted to
lieutenant on 14 May. He transferred to the
Guards Machine Gun Regiment on 12 August 1918, and was promoted
captain on 18 October 1918. He ceased to be employed with the Guards Machine Gun Regiment on 31 January 1919, and resigned his commission on 1 May 1919. He was badly wounded during the war.
Rowing He was a member of
Thames Rowing Club, as was his father, taking part in a race on the Thames at
Putney on 12 April 1919. In 1920 he was runner up in
Silver Goblets at
Henley Royal Regatta in a
coxless pair with
Bruce Logan. In 1923 Fairbairn
stroked the Thames crew which won the
Grand Challenge Cup, and was again stroke in the Thames crew that made up the
eight rowing for
Great Britain at the 1924 Summer Olympics, finishing fourth. He was Captain of Thames (again following his father) in 1933, a vice president from 1927 to 1967 and President from 1967 until his death a year later. He was a Steward of Henley Royal Regatta from 1948 until his death.
Finance After the First World War, Fairbairn worked at the
London Stock Exchange and in Paris for several years. He also studied at the
London School of Economics. He pioneered the
unit trust industry at
M&G Investments which he joined in 1935 as an investment manager. From 1943 he was chair of M&G. ==References==