[1] He was educated at Lesmahagow Higher Grade School and Hamilton Academy, then won two scholarships to study economics at Glasgow University.
[2] From there, he attained a further research studentship to study at Trinity College, Cambridge, and in 1935 was awarded the second PhD in economics bestowed by the university (the first, according to Cairncross himself, was given to Ronald Walker).
[4] Cairncross served as an economic adviser to the UK government (1961–64), Head of the Government Economic Service (1964–69) and Master of St Peter's College, Oxford (1969–78), Chancellor of the University of Glasgow (1972–96), and was an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
[7] In 1970 he was invited to deliver the MacMillan Memorial Lecture to the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland.
[4] Cairncross married Mary Frances Glynn in 1943; the couple had five children: two daughters and three sons.