Andrew Fairbairn

Who was Andrew Fairbairn?

Sir Andrew Fairbairn was a British Liberal politician.

Fairbairn was born in Glasgow, the son of Sir Peter Fairbairn, of Woodsley House, Leeds and his wife Margaret Kennedy and educated at Geneva, at Glasgow, and at Peterhouse, Cambridge. He was called to the bar at Inner Temple in 1852.

He became a captain in the Yorkshire Hussar Yeoman Cavalry and major in the 7th West Riding Rifle Volunteers. He was chairman of the engineering firm of Fairbairn, Naylor, Macpherson, & Co. of Leeds. He was Mayor of Leeds from 1866 to 1868 and chairman of Leeds School Board from 1871 to 1878. He was a member of Executive Committee of Leeds Exhibition of Fine Arts and a Royal Commissioner of the Paris Exhibition in 1868. He was a J.P and Deputy Lieutenant for the West Riding of Yorkshire and a J.P. for Leeds. He was knighted in 1868.

Fairbairn was elected at the 1880 general election as one of the two Members of Parliament for Eastern West Riding of Yorkshire. When that constituency was divided at the 1885 general election, he was elected for the new Otley constituency. When the Liberals split over Irish Home Rule, Fairbairn joined the breakway Liberal Unionists, and was defeated at the 1886 general election by the Liberal party candidate. In 1892 he served as High Sheriff of Yorkshire