FAIRFAX, Sir JAMES READING (1834-1919) and Sir JAMES OSWALD (1863-1928), newspaper proprietors, were father and son. James Reading was born on 17 October 1834 at Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, England, second son of John Fairfax, newspaper proprietor, and his wife Sarah, née Reading. On 26 September 1838 the family reached Sydney in the Lady Fitzherbert. Fairfax attended St Philip's Church infants' school and W. T. Cape's Sydney College. At 16 he was apprenticed as a printer at the Sydney Morning Herald, then owned by his father and Charles Kemp. He entered the Herald office in George Street aged 18 and worked in various departments. In December 1856 he became a partner in John Fairfax & Sons, with his father and elder brother Charles (d.1863). On 12 March that year at the Pitt Street Congregational Church he married Lucy, daughter of John Armstrong, surveyor, and granddaughter of Francis Oakes. They ...

Read more at the source website

Source:

Australian Dictionary of Biography