FAIRBAIRN, Richard Purdom (1855-1936), active in London, Ont. where he was a partner in the firm of Robinson, Tracy & Fairbairn in 1877-1878 (see list of works under William Robinson). Born in London, Ont. on 20 May 1855, he was educated in primary and secondary schools there. He joined the successful London architectural firm of Tracy & Durand as a student in 1873 and trained under them for four years, and was admitted a full partner in January 1877 (London Free Press, 17 Jan. 1877, 4). However, his role with the firm was brief, and he appears to have left in 1879 to move to Toronto to join the Ontario civil service. By 1890 he was recorded as a staff architect with the Provincial Dept. of Public Works in Toronto, working under the direct supervision of Kivas Tully. In 1903 he was appointed as Provincial Engineer for Ontario, succeeding Robert McCallum who moved to the position of City Architect for Toronto (London Free Press, 10 Oct. 1903, 3; C.R., xiv, 14 Oct. 1903, 4).
In 1910 Fairbairn was appointed to the position of Deputy Minister within the provincial Dept. of Public Works. He retired from that post on 31 December 1924, and he later died in Toronto on 11 June 1936 (obituary C.R., vol. 50, 24 June 1936, 569; biog. in C.R., xlviii, 6 January 1925, 120; biog. & port. in Ontario Land Surveyors Annual Reports, 1937. biog. H. Morgan, Canadian Men and Women of the Time, 1912, 382)