Fanshawe College was built in the former hamlet of Fanshawe (now part of London, Ontario), which was founded by Irishman Hamilton Hartley Killaly; Killaly built a large frame house there in the 1830s, called Killaly Castle, that lasted until the 1880s, when it collapsed from the movement of the Thames River. The hamlet's name was officially recorded in 1894 as the name of the post office; it is said to have been named for the Fanshawe peerage in Ireland, which took its name from Fanshawe Gate in Derbyshire, recorded in Middle English as Fawnchall gate.
The Ontario Vocational Centre London held its first classes on September 28, 1964. In 1967, it became Fanshawe College, part of a provincial system of applied arts and technology colleges. Fanshawe subsequently established campuses in Woodstock, St. Thomas, and Simcoe. The London campus originally consisted of three buildings but has since been subject to a series of extensions.
James A. Colvin was named Fanshawe College's first president in 1967 and held the position until 1979, when he was succeeded by Harry Rawson, who served as president until his retirement in 1987. Barry Moore was the third president from 1987 to 1996. Howard Rundle, Fanshawe's longest-serving president, subsequently led the college for 18 years until his retirement on August 31, 2013. Peter Devlin became president of the college on September 3, 2013 and had served as a lieutenant general in the Canadian Army.
The Fanshawe College Arboretum was established in 1995.
In May 2011, the college opened its Centre for Applied Transportation Technologies, with a capacity of 1,500 students. The college established the Norton Wolf School of Aviation Technology after purchasing Jazz Aviation facilities at London International Airport in August 2013.
In 2014, Fanshawe announced that it would purchase the building of the recently closed Kingsmill's Department Store for expansion of its downtown London campus with a request for an additional grant of $10 million from City Council. The request proved politically contentious in a municipal election year with it being initially refused by Council following a tie vote on July 29. However, after the local organization, Downtown London, put up $1 million in support of this initiative, London City Council narrowly voted to approve the remainder of the funding after minor additional contract changes in its favor.
In September 2014, Fanshawe College established its School of Public Safety, to provide public safety programs. In June 2016, Fanshawe opened its Canadian Centre for Product Validation (CCPV), a 25,000 square feet (2,300 m2) testing facility.