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PLAYFAIR, LYON PLAYFAIR

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Originally appearing in Volume V21, Page 831 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PLAYFAIR, See also:LYON PLAYFAIR , 1st See also:BARON (1818-1898), was See also:born at See also:Chunar, See also:Bengal See also:province, on the 21st of May 1818. He was sent to See also:Europe by his See also:father at an See also:early See also:age, and received his first See also:education at St See also:Andrews. Subsequently he studied See also:medicine at See also:Glasgow and See also:Edinburgh. A See also:short visit to See also:India (in 1837-1838) was followed by his return to Europe to studychemistry, which had always attracted him. This he did at University See also:College, See also:London, and afterwards under See also:Liebig at See also:Giessen, where he took his See also:doctor's degree. At Liebig's See also:request, Playfair translated into See also:English the former's See also:work on the See also:Chemistry of See also:Agriculture, and represented Liebig at a See also:meeting of the See also:British Association at Glasgow. The outcome of his studies was his engagement in 1841 as chemical manager of the See also:Primrose See also:print-See also:works at See also:Clitheroe, a See also:post which he held for rather more than a See also:year. In 1843 he was elected honorary See also:professor of chemistry to the Royal Institution of See also:Manchester, and soon afterwards was appointed a member of the Royal See also:Commission on the See also:Health of Towns, a See also:body whose investigations may be said to have laid the See also:foundations of See also:modern sanitation. In 1846 he was appointed chemist to the See also:geological survey, and thenceforward was constantly employed by the public departments in matters of sanitary and chemical inspection. The opportunity of his See also:life came with the 1851 See also:Exhibition, of which he was one of the See also:special commissioners. For his services in this connexion he was made C.B., and his work had the additional See also:advantage of bringing him into See also:close See also:personal relations with the See also:Prince See also:Consort, who appointed him See also:gentleman See also:usher in his See also:household. From 1856 to 1869 he was professor of chemistry at Edinburgh University.

In 1868 he was elected to represent the See also:

universities of Edinburgh and St Andrews in See also:parliament, and retained his seat till 1885, from which date until 1892 he sat as member for See also:Leeds. In 1873 he was made postmaster-See also:general, and in the following year, after the See also:dissolution of parliament, was applied to by the incoming Tory See also:government to preside over a commission to inquire into the working of the See also:civil service. Its See also:report established a completely new See also:system, which has ever since been officially known as the "Playfair See also:scheme." The return of Mr See also:Gladstone to See also:power in 188o afforded opportunity for Playfair to resume his interrupted See also:parliamentary career, and from that See also:time until 1883 he acted as chairman of committees during a See also:period when the obstructive See also:tactics of the Irish party were at their height. On his retirement from the post he was made K.C.B. In 1892 he was created Baron Playfair of St Andrews, and a little later was appointed See also:lord-in-waiting to the See also:queen. In 1895 he was given the G.C.B. In spite of failing health the last years of his life were full of activity, one of his latest public acts being his See also:suggestion that Queen See also:Victoria's See also:Diamond See also:Jubilee of 1897 should be commemorated by the completion of the See also:South See also:Kensington Museum. He died in London, after a short illness, on the 29th of May 1898, and was buried at St Andrews. He was three times married. He was the author of a number of papers on scientific and social topics, a selection from which he published in 1889 under the See also:title of Subjects of Social Welfare. A memoir by See also:Sir See also:Wemyss See also:Reid was published in 1899.

End of Article: PLAYFAIR, LYON PLAYFAIR

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