Thomas Fairburn

Tom has an enthusiastic passion for hospitality and enjoys working alongside the Greenbank team. He understands the hotel as one big family and enjoys helping its guests have an enjoyable stay.

Born at Kerikeri to Sarah Tuckwell and William Thomas Fairburn (a CMS lay missionary), his descendants today reside primarily throughout New Zealand and Australia.

Early Life and Education

Thomas Fairburn was born on the third month day in Virginia. On the fourth month day in 1854 he married Elizabeth Ann Misner and they went on to have two children together.

Fairburn began his mapmaking and chartmaking training at the CMS mission print shop in Auckland as a young man, developing expertise in lithography while discovering his love of Pre-Raphaelite paintings.

Following the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi which established British sovereignty over New Zealand, Fairburn’s initial purchase was examined by the Land Claims Commission of New Zealand and eventually disallowed after lengthy investigations by this government body.

Fairburn continued his art collecting and exhibition habits into later life, serving on the board of commissioners for Manchester’s 1851 Great Exhibition where he selected the firm that built a temporary exhibition building and collected works of art to display.

Professional Career

Fairburn was engaged in various businesses, such as ironworks, cotton spinning and shipbuilding. Following a visit to Italy in 1841-2 he began using his industrial wealth to collect paintings – becoming one of the commissioners at the 1851 Great Exhibition as well as being chairman of Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition’s Executive Committee; later selecting the firm responsible for building what later became Victoria and Albert Museum temporary gallery space.

William Holman Hunt was his painter of choice, whom he commissioned to complete several works for him. Additionally, he collected sculpture by Thomas Woolner. Additionally, he founded and supported various arts organisations, such as the British Institution. Additionally he became High Sheriff of Hampshire in 1870.

Achievement and Honors

Fairburn was an active participant in both the 1851 Great Exhibition and 1857 Art Treasures Exhibitions in Manchester, serving on both Executive Committees as chairman. For each exhibition he purchased some of his favorite Pre-Raphaelites for display; Jules Soulages donated several of these Pre-Raphaelite pieces that he purchased especially.

He created the Lin Olin Endowed Scholarship at DePauw University to honor her memory, awarding it annually to a rising senior who exhibits exceptional scholastic achievement.

He played an essential part in shaping Object Relations Theory through his papers on personality. Psychoanalytic Studies of Personality (1952), an anthology of his writings compiled by him, contains many of the fundamental concepts now employed within it. Furthermore, his works challenged Freud’s psychoanalysis model and helped found the Independent Group.

Personal Life

Fairburn was known to pursue many different passions and interests outside of work, such as fine arts, literature and philosophy; spirituality and religion also captured his imagination.

He served as a lay missionary or catachist for the Church Mission Society during early European settlement in New Zealand. His home in Auckland was known as Ravensbourne – an allusion to its namesake river that flows into South London’s Tidal Thames system.

Fairburn had studied Freud extensively during the 1930s but eventually began to depart from his approach. Not being entirely satisfied with Freud’s explanation of psyche structure, Fairburn developed his own theory of instinctual drives – eventually leading him to write “Schizoid Factors in Personality”, an influential paper which later helped Klein develop object relations psychoanalysis.

Net Worth

Thomas Fairburn currently boasts an estimated net worth of approximately $900 Million, amassing his fortune through successful careers in law, business and real estate. A member of Forbes Billionaires List. Thomas owns multiple properties throughout the US – homes as well as businesses – while also making substantial returns from investments.

He has earned a stellar reputation as an effective negotiator, brokering numerous deals for clients both domestically and abroad. Furthermore, he is active as a philanthropist.

Criminally speaking, however, he has made headlines for the wrong reasons. Currently serving a 12-year jail term for stalking and attacking a woman near Fairburn Ings in June last year (CCTV footage showed him driving into the village, changing into darker clothing before following her on foot), his case has garnered considerable media coverage.