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22 Facts About Nicholas Fairbairn

1.

Sir Nicholas Hardwick Fairbairn, was a Scottish politician and advocate.

2.

Nicholas Fairbairn was the Conservative Member of Parliament for Kinross and Western Perthshire from October 1974 to 1983, and then for Perth and Kinross until his death in 1995.

3.

Nicholas Fairbairn was Solicitor General for Scotland from 1979 to 1982.

4.

Nicholas Fairbairn was born in Edinburgh on 24 December 1933, the third child and second son of Mary Ann More-Gordon and Ronald Fairbairn, a psychoanalyst.

5.

Nicholas Fairbairn describes their relationship from when he could converse with his father, for the next 20 years until old age affected his father, like that of twins with his father treating him as "his equal and confidant".

6.

Nicholas Fairbairn was educated at Loretto School and the University of Edinburgh, where he graduated with an MA and an LLB.

7.

Nicholas Fairbairn began in Conservative politics by standing in the Edinburgh Central seat in 1964 and 1966, positioning himself as a liberal Conservative.

8.

Nicholas Fairbairn won the seat in October 1974 with a majority of just 53 votes over the Scottish National Party.

9.

Nicholas Fairbairn was known at Parliament for his flamboyant Scottish baronial tartan dress.

10.

Nicholas Fairbairn always carried a silver miniature, working revolver on a chain attached to his belt.

11.

Nicholas Fairbairn was reputedly the only MP to use the House of Commons Parliamentary snuff box.

12.

Nicholas Fairbairn had a mistress, Pamela Milne, who attempted suicide at his London home in 1981.

13.

Nicholas Fairbairn was again in the news in October 1982 when he was cited in the divorce case of investment consultant Alasdair MacInnes, having had an affair with MacInnes' wife Suzanne.

14.

In 1983, Nicholas Fairbairn was elected an honorary Fellow of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers, and he became a Trustee of the Royal Museums of Scotland in 1987.

15.

Nicholas Fairbairn was President of the Society for the Preservation of Duddingston Village.

16.

Nicholas Fairbairn was knighted in the 1988 Birthday Honours for political service.

17.

Nicholas Fairbairn called members of the band Throbbing Gristle "wreckers of civilisation" in 1976 in a row over public funding of the arts.

18.

Nicholas Fairbairn criticised Scottish performers Simple Minds and Annie Lennox for taking part in the 1988 Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute concert in Wembley Stadium, describing them as "left-wing scum".

19.

Nicholas Fairbairn was a staunch supporter of Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988, which prohibited local authorities from "promoting homosexuality".

20.

Nicholas Fairbairn described the gay tenor Peter Pears as suffering from the "morbid squint" of homosexuality.

21.

Nicholas Fairbairn voted against equalising the age of consent in 1994 although earlier in his career had been a supporter of the Scottish Minorities Group, a Scottish gay rights organisation.

22.

Nicholas Fairbairn had stated that he would stand down at the 1997 general election, but he died before then, at Queen Margaret Hospital in Dunfermline, on 19 February 1995, aged 61.