John FairfaxPrint Page

The marble tablet erected by friends commemorates John Fairfax (1804 - 1877) for his service to the church as one of the first deacons and his humanitarian work. 

John Fairfax arrived in New South Wales from Warwick, England, in 1838. He became a partner in the Sydney Herald in 1838 and sole proprietor in 1851, by which time it had assumed the name by which it is still known the Sydney Morning Herald. His descendants are still prominent in the media to this day.

What is not generally known is that John Fairfax was a lifelong Congregationalist. He was a deacon at Pitt Street Congregational Church in Sydney. In 1851 he returned to England to attend to business and while there addressed the Colonial Missionary Society to promote the cause of Congregationalism in the booming gold town of Bathurst. Renowned for his religious tolerance, Fairfax was active in such interdenominational Christian efforts as the YMCA and the Ragged Schools Committee, and such movements for moral renewal as the anti-transportation campaigns. In church life he remained senior deacon of Pitt Street until his death, assisted in the foundation of Camden Theological College, and was open-handed both with hospitality and money.
 

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