Background
Fairbairn was born in Claygate, Surrey.
Fairbairn was born in Claygate, Surrey.
Fairbairn was educated at Geelong Grammar School and Jesus College, Cambridge.
In 1939, took control of Dunraven, a pastoral property at Woomargama, in the Riverina district of New South Wales. During, he served in the 21st Light Horse Riverina Regiment from 1939 to 1941 and joined the Royal Australian Air Force in 1941. He served both in Britain, where he located the first V-1 flying bomb launching site, and in the New Guinea campaign.
In 1945 he was badly wounded and discharged with the rank of Flight Lieutenant.
In the 1949 election, Fairbairn was elected to the House of Representatives as the federal member for Farrer. He was appointed Minister for the Air in 1962 in the ninth Menzies Ministry.
In 1964, he became Minister for National Development. After the 1969 election, he challenged John Gorton unsuccessfully for the leadership and then resigned from the ministry, saying: "I have given deep thought and consideration to this decision.
I have made it reluctantly.
My sole concern in coming to it is the future of the Liberal Party, the Government and the Nation." According to Ian Sinclair, he was opposed to Gorton"s centralism and in particular, his attempt to claim of sovereignty over Australia"s territorial waters and continental shelf for the Commonwealth. Fairbairn became Minister for Education and Science in March 1971 in the McMahon Ministry and Minister for Defence from August 1971 to the government"s defeat in 1972 election. He retired from Parliament at the 1975 election.
From 1977 to 1980, Fairbairn was Australia"s Ambassador to the Netherlands.
