Alex Fairley
11 January 1925 - 2019
Alex was born in January 1925 in British Columbia. Sadly, his father who worked in insurance died around the time of his birth and his mother made an epic journey back to England with her baby. They went to Hastings in Sussex where other relations lived and it was there that Alex was brought up. He never returned to Canada.
Alex went to London University just after the war to study mathematics and was always listed as ‘J.A.Fairley MSc London’ in staff lists. He also completed a Diploma in Education at Bristol University. In about 1950 he began work as a lecturer in the then Loughborough College and remained there until his retirement 40 years later, by which time the College had become a University. Alex was promoted to a Senior Lectureship in the 1970’s. With two colleagues, he wrote a number of textbooks on Mathematics for Engineers and Scientists using the then fashionable programmed learning approach.
Apart from choral singing, Alex’s main hobby was swimming. On Saturday afternoons he would spend the whole of a 2 hour session swimming up and down the old Edward Herbert pool (now long demolished) with a powerful crawl.
Alex joined the University choir in 1979 and also sang in various other local choral societies and churches. He very seldom, if ever, missed a rehearsal. He ceased swimming when he was about 80 but his singing continued until the end of his life.
Alex Fairley died peacefully at his home on December 4, 2019, fittingly perhaps on the very day of the University choir’s Christmas Concert.