James Oswald Fairfax personal and business archive, compiled ca. 1944-2016

fonds

compiled ca. 1944-2016

Graphic Materials, Photographs, Textual Records, Ephemera, Clippings

9611846

42.5 metres of textual material (97 boxes and 53 outsize boxes), some files contain photographs and ephemera items
Approximately 90,000 photographic prints (248 volumes and 2 boxes)
Approximately 1,656 slides (12 boxes and 1 folder)
3 transparencies
14 negatives

James Oswald Fairfax AC, Australian company director, philanthropist and arts patron was born on 27 March 1933 to Marcie Elizabeth (Betty) Fairfax, nee Wilson, and Warwick Oswald Fairfax, (later Sir Warwick). The couple were married on 27 March 1928 and divorced in 1945.

James lived with his parents and sister, Caroline Elizabeth Oswald Fairfax, in their Bellevue Hill home Barford, which was built after the marriage of Warwick and Betty, adjacent garden of the original Fairfax family home, Ginahgulla. In 1944, the family acquired the country property Harrington Park near Narrellan (Camden) and holidayed in Palm Beach at Christmas. James attended Cranbrook School in Bellevue Hill. In February 1946, he left the family home to board at Geelong Grammar School. At the end of 1947, he travelled to Japan where he stayed with his mother and stepfather Pierre Gilly, captain of the French Navy destroyer, Le Triomphant, whom she met in Sydney in 1942 and married in March 1946. In December 1947, Edward Gilly was born to his mother and Pierre. James attributed his lifelong love of travel and connection with Japan to this first overseas journey.

After graduating from Geelong Grammar, in March 1951 James attended the University of Sydney, before moving to England in October 1952 to study for three years at Balliol College, Oxford. During this time, he travelled throughout England, to Paris (where his mother and Gilly lived from 1948), to Italy, Germany, Greece, Egypt, Syria and Lebanon. His European journeys helped him expand his knowledge and love of art. Throughout the 1960s, James frequently travelled overseas buying artworks and acquiring properties including a beach house in Bilgola in February 1960, Retford Park in Bowral in January 1964 and Lindsay Avenue, Darling Point in May 1966.

In October 1955, James began his 32-year career at John Fairfax Ltd (now Fairfax Media), starting as a trainee journalist. In 1957, he joined the company's board. By 1958, James was a director of Associated Newspapers (The Sun and Sungravure). In January 1975, he became Chairman of the Fairfax subsidiary, Amalgamated Television Services (ATN7) and in March 1977 James became Chairman of John Fairfax Ltd. During this period the newspaper company diversified into television, magazines and regional publications.

In December 1987, James left the company, sold his shares to his half-brother Warwick Fairfax, and began a new life and direction in writing, travel and expanding his art collection. Known for his philanthropy, James made numerous gifts to art galleries and was a regular benefactor for many organisations and charities including libraries, hospitals, universities and the World Wide Fund for Nature.

James was a life governor of both the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the National Gallery of Australia. In 2010 he was awarded Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) in the Australia Day Honours. His memoir My Regards to Broadway was published in 1991.

In 2003, James retired permanently to Bowral. In 2016, James gave the Retford Park homestead to the National Trust. In the last few decades he lived and travelled with his companion Ray Hansen who died in 2015. James Fairfax died on 11 January 2017 at the age of 83.

References:
My Regards to Broadway: a memoir / James Fairfax. Pymble, NSW. Collins Angus and Robertson. 1992.
Lawson, Valerie (2017, January 12), James Fairfax: Born to be a newspaper headliner, Sydney Morning Herald, https://www.smh.com.au (viewed 14 September 2018)

Comprises personal correspondence, photograph albums, slides, business records, family papers, drafts of his memoir My Regards to Broadway (1991), diaries and notebooks, and scrapbooks of newsclippings relating to his business and personal interests.

SERIES 01
James Oswald Fairfax family and personal papers, compiled ca. 1946-2016

SERIES 02
James Oswald Fairfax literary and research papers for 'My Regards to Broadway', 1976-1997

SERIES 03
James Oswald Fairfax Amalgamated Television Network business records, ca. 1973-1987

SERIES 04
James Oswald Fairfax John Fairfax Limited business records, ca. 1977-1987, including some personal files, compiled ca. 1953-2000

SERIES 05
James Oswald Fairfax diaries and notebooks, 1946-2011

SERIES 06
James Oswald Fairfax scrapbooks, 1935-2014

SERIES 07
James Oswald Fairfax photograph albums, ca. 1834-2015

SERIES 08
Slides of overseas travels, including New South Wales and Australia, ca. 1955-1990

This collection was arranged into eight series, in accordance with the original box listing compiled by Sharon Windsor and Lisa Toulson. Series 1 and 2 were re-arranged into files by correspondent and/or subject for ease of navigation. Series 3 and 4 containing business and correspondence files are arranged into sub-series and files in their original alphabetic filing order. Series 7 was arranged numerically according to the original album numbers. Series 8 was arranged by geographic place.