FAIRBAIRN, John Sydney (1934-2020)

[Richard R]

He was s of Sydney George FAIRBAIRN MC (1892-1943), scion of the FAIRBAIRN Bts cr 1869 (note: according to Burke's Colonial Gentry vol 2 p676), and Angela Maude FANE (1901-, born TRAHERNE but name changed by deed poll 1912 when her mother m a scion of the WESTMORLAND earls as her 2nd h). He m 1st 1968 (as her 2nd h) Camilla d of Geoffrey Norman GRINLING (1901-84, landscape painter), and had a son and a dau as above. He m 2nd 2001 (as her 3rd h) Felicity d of Murray BALLANTYNE of Montreal and mother (by her 2nd h) of 4th Baron MILFORD.
Obituary in the Times of 14 Feb 2020:
EXTRACT
...John Sydney Fairbairn was born in Steventon, Hampshire, in 1934 to Sydney and Angela (née Fane). Sydney was an explorer who played cricket for MCC, won a Military Cross in the First World War and became a stockbroker.
John had a happy childhood in Steventon, that was also the birthplace of Jane Austen. The idyll came to an abrupt halt when Sydney died of a heart attack in 1943, which deeply affected the nine-year-old John...
He had a string of glamorous girlfriends before meeting Camilla Fry at a dinner party in 1966. They married in 1968, the year after Camilla divorced Jeremy Fry, who invented the four-wheel-drive wheelchair.
Camilla already had four children, and she and Fairbairn had three more: John, who runs an educational technology company; Rose, who has five children and is involved with local charities; and Flora, an art curator. John brought up the youngest of Camilla’s children from her first marriage, Minna, who worked in publishing.
Camilla died of chronic asthma in 2000. Fairbairn nursed her for her last few years. In 2001 he married Felicity Milford, who was the former wife of Lord Leach, the Rothschilds’ merchant banker, and the 3rd Baron Milford....
John Fairbairn, businessman and philanthropist, was born on January 15, 1934. He died after a long illness on January 12, 2020, aged 85
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/register/john-fairbairn-obituary-qvhgwt79c

[colinp]

A little more family history in the Telegraph obit - https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2020/02/17/john-fairbairn-businessman-philanthropist-obituary/

EXTRACT

John Sydney Fairbairn was born at Steventon in Hampshire on January 15 1934 into a family of sportsmen. His Australian-born grandfather Steve Fairbairn was a celebrated oarsman, as was his uncle Ian, who rowed for Great Britain in the 1924 Olympics. John’s father Sydney Fairbairn played first-class cricket, won an MC in France in the First World War and was briefly married to the heiress and writer Nancy Cunard before marrying Angela Fane, with whom he had two daughters and a son, John.