Fairbairn rowed for Jesus College Boat Club, like his brothers and six of his cousins had done. In Jesus College crews, he rowed to success in the Cambridge University bumps races and Henley Royal Regatta, where they won the 1885 Grand Challenge Cup. He also won the hammer throwing and putting the weight at the Freshmen's sports for Jesus College. He rowed for Cambridge in the Boat Race, in 1882 and 1883 and later whilst conducting post-graduate studies in 1886 and 1887. After university Fairbairn's senior club rowing was from the Thames Rowing Club in London.
Coaching career
Philosophy
Fairbairn was an early proponent of training his crews to slide in their seats to facilitate leg-drive. He had realised that the secret to world-champion sculler Ned Hanlan's uncanny successes was not that he rowed a longer stroke, but rather that he used his legs to great effect during the stroke. He was also an advocate of fitting longer slides into boats to better allow the use of the legs. Fairbairn's observations led him to develop a revolutionary rowing style featuring concurrent use of the legs, back and arms at the catch. He also coached that crews should not focus unduly on positioning their bodies according to rigid rules but should instead concentrate on the movement of the blade, creating an easy, flowing movement. His philosophy was that rowing, when done well, should be a sublimely enjoyable experience. All of these features of his coaching are referred to as "Fairbairnism". There is continuing debate among rowing coaches and historians as to whether Fairbairnism better describes a style of rowing or philosophy of coaching.
Influence
Fairbairn was an iconoclast with strong views and great charisma. Opinions of him and his methods tended to be extreme. Fairbairn corresponded widely and wrote four volumes on coaching, and his views were therefore adopted by many coaches across the globe. In the 1920s and 1930s, many coaches followed his lead completely. However, others felt Fairbairnism to be anathema to the principles of the "English Orthodox" style. To those observers, Fairbairn's crews rowed sloppily. The schism between "Orthodoxy" and "Fairbairnism" had largely disappeared from rowing by the 1940s. Fairbairn's books were collected, and reprinted in 1951 and again in 1990.
Training methodology
Fairbairn was a strong believer in the benefits of distance training; part of his philosophy was that "mileage makes champions". As such he developed the concept of the head race, a long-distance race against the clock to mark the end of winter training, thus encouraging crews to train over longer distances. In 1926 he founded the Head of the River Race, for men's eights held annually since on The Championship Course on the River Thames in London. Similarly he donated a trophy for a head race to be held annually on the River Cam. "The Fairbairn Cup" is the annual race held on the first Thursday and Friday after the end of the University of Cambridge's Michaelmas Full Term. The race is organised by Jesus College Boat Club in Cambridge.
Memorial
Fairbairn died in London, 16 May 1938. His ashes rest beneath the shadow of Jesus College chapel. A portrait by James Quinn hangs in the college. A duplicate of the Quinn portrait hangs in Thames Rowing Club's Putney clubhouse. A memorial to Fairbairn is situated on the southern bank of the Thames between Putney and Hammersmith. This memorial, a stone obelisk popularly known as the Mile Post, is exactly one mile from the Putney end of the Championship Course. In the Boat Race and Wingfield Sculls, the Mile Post is a formal intermediate timing point, and it marks one mile from the finish of the Head of the River Race. A bronze bust of Fairbairn by George Drinkwater is the winner's trophy for the Head of the River Race. In 2010 Fairbairn was inducted into the Rowing Victoria Hall of Fame.
