Fairfax, Thomas, 3rd Baron Fairfax of Cameron

b. 1612; d. 1671

English general, son of Ferdinando, 2nd Lord Fairfax, born at Denton, Yorkshire, and educated at St John's College, Cambridge. He fought at the siege of Bois-le-duc in 1629, and later in the first Scottish war, but it is as a Parliamentary general during the Civil War that he is best remembered. He captured Leeds and Wakefield in 1643, and in the following year had a command at Marston Moor. In 1645 he was appointed commander-in-chief of the New Model Army, and in that year defeated Charles I at Naseby. He was appointed one of the King's judges in 1649, but refused to sit at the trial, and as a Presbyterian was bitterly opposed to Charles's execution. In 1650 he retired from public life, but headed the commission to invite Charles II to return to England in 1660.

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