James Fairfax

James Oswald Fairfax (27 March 1933 – 11 January 2017) was an Australian company director, philanthropist, and a member of the Fairfax family, an Australian family prominent in the newspaper publisher industry. Biography Fairfax was born in Sydney, the eldest son of Sir Warwick Oswald Fairfax and Marcie Elizabeth (Betty) Wilson. He is the grandson of Sir James Oswald Fairfax (1863–1928) and David Wilson (1879–1965). Educated at Fairfield, Cranbrook School, Geelong Grammar School and Balliol College, Oxford, he became a director of John Fairfax & Sons Ltd in 1957 and took over from his father in 1977. He resigned in 1987 and sold his shares to his half brother Warwick Fairfax, during 'young Warwick's' ultimately disastrous takeover bid. Fairfax published a memoir in 1991. He died single having never married on 11 January 2017 at the age of 83.