Lyon Playfair, 1st Baron Playfair

Background and education

Playfair was born at Chunar, Bengal, the son of George Playfair, Inspector General of Hospitals in that region, and Janet, daughter of John Ross. The family was fairly middle class with strong academic roots in University of St Andrews. All of Playfair's siblings were sent back to Scotland to avoid the hazards of an Indian upbringing. Playfair was named after his uncle, Sir Hugh Lyon Playfair, and was educated at the University of St Andrews, the Andersonian Institute in Glasgow, and the University of Edinburgh. After going to Calcutta at the end of 1837, he became private laboratory assistant to Thomas Graham at University College, London, and in 1839 went to work under Justus Liebig at the University of Giessen.

Career until 1869

After returning to Britain, Playfair became manager of a calico works in Primrose, near Clitheroe, and in 1843 was appointed Professor of Chemistry at the Royal Manchester Institution, where he was assisted by Robert Angus Smith. Two years later, he was made chemist to the Geological Survey, and subsequently became Professor in the new School of Mines. In 1848, he was elected to the Royal Society, and three years later was made Special Commissioner and a member of the executive committee of the Great Exhibition.

Appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath that same year, Playfair also became Gentleman Usher to Prince Albert, and in 1853 was appointed Secretary of the Department of Science, in which capacity he advocated the use of poison gas against the Russians in the Crimean War. In 1855, he was a commissioner of the Exposition Universelle, and two years later became President of the Chemical Society, finally returning to Edinburgh University in 1858 as Professor of Chemistry there. In 1859 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, his proposer being James David Forbes.

Political career

In 1868, Playfair was elected Liberal Member of Parliament for the Universities of Edinburgh and St Andrews, being sworn of the Privy Council and made Postmaster General in Gladstone's government in 1873. The Liberals lost power in early 1874 but on their return to office in 1880, Playfair was appointed Chairman of Ways and Means and Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons, holding these posts until 1883, when he was created a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath. He was subsequently President of the British Association in 1885. In February 1886 he returned to the government as Vice-President of the Committee on Education under Gladstone, a post he held until the government fell in July of the same year. He was made a member of the Council of the Duchy of Cornwall in 1889.

Having represented Leeds South since 1885, Playfair left the House of Commons in 1892 and was ennobled as Baron Playfair, of St Andrews in the County of Fife. He served as a Lord in Waiting (government whip in the House of Lords) under Gladstone and then Lord Rosebery between 1892 and 1895. He was further honoured when he was made a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath in 1895 and awarded the Harben Gold Medal from the Royal Institute of Public Health in 1897. Playfair is also remembered for promoting a new cipher system invented by Charles Wheatstone, now known as the Playfair cipher.

Later life

Lord Playfair died at his home in South Kensington, London, in May 1898, aged 80, and was buried in the Eastern Cemetery, St Andrews, towards the north-east corner. He was succeeded in the barony by his son from his first marriage, George James Playfair (1849-1939) who is buried with him.

Family

Lord Playfair married Margaret Eliza, daughter of James Oakes, in 1846. After her death in August 1855 he married Jean Ann, daughter of Crawley Millington, in 1857. There were children from both marriages. Jean Ann died in 1877 and is buried in Dean Cemetery in Edinburgh facing the section known as "Lords Row". After her death, he married Edith Russell of Boston, whose 1884 portrait is in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.