Editing Lyon Playfair, 1st Baron Playfair

{{Short description|British scientist and politician (1818–1898)}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix = [[The Right Honourable]]
| name = The Lord Playfair
| honorific-suffix = {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|GCB|PC|FRS|FRSE}}
| image = Lyon Playfair.jpg
| imagesize = 200px
| caption = 
| order1 = [[Postmaster General of the United Kingdom|Postmaster General]]
| term_start1 = 18 November 1873
| term_end1 = 17 February 1874
| monarch1 = [[Queen Victoria]]
| primeminister1 = [[William Ewart Gladstone]]
| predecessor1 = [[William Monsell, 1st Baron Emly|William Monsell]]
| successor1 = [[John Manners, 7th Duke of Rutland|Lord John Manners]]
| order2 = [[Chairman of Ways and Means|Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons<br>Chairman of Ways and Means]]
| term_start2 = 1880 
| term_end2 = 1883
| monarch2 = [[Queen Victoria]]
| predecessor2 = [[Henry Cecil Raikes]]
| successor2 = [[Sir Arthur Otway, 3rd Baronet|Sir Arthur Otway, Bt]]
| order3 = [[Vice-President of the Committee on Education]]
| term_start3 = 13 February 1886
| term_end3 = 20 July 1886
| monarch3 = [[Queen Victoria]]
| primeminister3 = [[William Ewart Gladstone]]
| predecessor3 = [[Henry Holland, 1st Viscount Knutsford|Sir Henry Holland, Bt]]
| successor3 = [[Henry Holland, 1st Viscount Knutsford|Sir Henry Holland, Bt]]
| birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1818|05|1}} 
| birth_place = [[Chunar]], [[Bengal]], British India
| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1898|05|29|1818|05|1}}
| death_place = [[South Kensington]], London 
| nationality = [[United Kingdom|British]]
| party = [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal]]  
| alma_mater = [[University of St Andrews]] <br/> [[University of Edinburgh]]   
| spouse = Margaret Oakes (d. 1855) <br/> Jean Millington (d. 1877) <br/> Edith Russell (d. 1932)
| relations       = [[William Smoult Playfair]] (brother)<br/>[[Robert Lambert Playfair]] (brother)
}}
'''Lyon Playfair, 1st Baron Playfair''' {{postnominals|country=GBR|GCB|PC|FRS}} (1 May 1818 – 29 May 1898) was a British scientist and [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal]] politician who was Postmaster-General from 1873 to 1874.

==Early life==
Playfair was born at [[Chunar]], [[Bengal]], the son of [[George Playfair]] (1781–1845), the chief inspector-general of hospitals in that region, and Janet Ross (1795–1862), daughter of John Ross.<ref name=autogenerated1>{{cite book | title = Doctors, Politics and Society: Historical Essays | publisher = Rodopi, 1993 | author = Dorothy Porter, Roy Porter (editors) | volume = 23 | chapter = Lyon Playfair and the Idea of Progress}}</ref> The family was fairly middle class with strong academic roots in [[University of St Andrews]], his grandfather being [[James Playfair (minister)|Rev Prof James Playfair]], [[Principal of the University of St Andrews]]. All of Playfair's siblings were sent back to Scotland to avoid the hazards of an Indian upbringing.<ref name=autogenerated1 /> 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 (chemist)|Thomas Graham]] at [[University College, London]], and in 1839 went to work under [[Justus Liebig]] at the [[University of Giessen]].

==Early career==
After returning to [[United Kingdom|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 [[British Geological Survey|Geological Survey]], and subsequently became Professor in the new [[Royal School of Mines|School of Mines]]. In 1848, he was elected to the [[Royal Society of London|Royal Society]], and three years later was made Special Commissioner and a member of the executive committee of the [[Great Exhibition]].

After the Exhibition, the [[Society of Arts]] organised a series of lectures to draw attention to the lessons which should be learned from the Exhibition. Playfair's two lectures were devoted to [[technical education]], which he considered in Britain to be unfit for an increasingly competitive world.<ref>Wemyss Reid, ''Memoirs and Correspondence of Lyon Playfair'' (London: Cassell, 1900), pp. 148–149.</ref> In preparation for his lectures, Playfair toured France, Holland, Belgium, Germany, Austria and Scandinavia to study their education systems. His first lecture was delivered to the School of Mines, under the title "Industrial Instruction on the Continent", and was published in the ''Records of the School of Mines''. It aroused great public interest and Playfair later claimed that it gave a considerable impulse to technical education in Britain, with the government establishing the [[Science and Art Department|Department of Science and Art]] soon afterwards.<ref>Reid, pp. 149–150.</ref>

Appointed a [[Order of the Bath|Companion of the Order of the Bath]], Playfair also became [[Gentleman Usher]] to [[Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha|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 (1855)|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]]. He served as the Society's vice president from 1864 to 1870.<ref>{{cite book|title=Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002|date=July 2006|publisher=The Royal Society of Edinburgh|isbn=0-902-198-84-X|url=https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|access-date=2 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304074135/https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|archive-date=4 March 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Political career==
In 1868, Playfair was elected [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal]] Member of Parliament for the [[Edinburgh and St Andrews Universities (UK Parliament constituency)|Universities of Edinburgh and St Andrews]], being sworn of the [[Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council|Privy Council]]<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=24045 |date=16 December 1873 |page=5869 }}</ref> and made [[United Kingdom Postmaster General|Postmaster General]] in [[William Ewart Gladstone|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 (United Kingdom)|Speaker of the House of Commons]], holding these posts until 1883, when he was created a [[Order of the Bath|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.

During the 1870s and early 1880s, anti-vaccination supporters sought to repeal UK government legislation for compulsory childhood vaccination against smallpox.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Blatchford |first=Ian |date=2021 |title=Vaccination and the Victorians; Lyon Playfair's battle for science |url=https://blog.sciencemuseum.org.uk/vaccination-and-the-victorians-lyon-playfairs-battle-for-science/ |access-date=30 May 2022}}</ref>  Playfair's speech to parliament in 1883<ref>{{Cite book |last=Playfair |first=Lyon |url=https://curiosity.lib.harvard.edu/contagion/catalog/36-990061401500203941 |title=Facts about vaccination ; speeches in Parliament |last2=Dilke |first2=Chas |publisher=Jarrold & Sons |year=1883}}</ref> helped the government win a motion to keep compulsory vaccination by over 250 votes.<ref name=":0" />

In November 1887, a meeting of the [[National Union of Conservative and Constitutional Associations]] held in Oxford passed a resolution calling for [[Fair Trade League|Fair Trade]] (a form of [[protectionism]]).<ref>'Conservative Conference at Oxford', ''The Times'' (23 November 1887), p. 8.</ref> The following month, Playfair defended [[free trade]] in a speech in Leeds, which was published by the [[Cobden Club]] under the title "On Fair Trade and the Depression in Agriculture". He later claimed that this pamphlet sold around 100,000 copies.<ref>Reid, p. 367.</ref> The veteran free trade campaigner, [[John Bright]], wrote to Playfair and said his speech was "one of the best, if not the best, spoken on the question".<ref name="Reid, p. 368">Reid, p. 368.</ref>

Playfair delivered a speech to the City Liberal Club in London, where he claimed that economic depressions were not due to fiscal arrangements but were universal and synchronous in all industrialised nations. The advances in science, such as improved transport and the substitution of machine for manual labour, had lowered the value of labour of quantity and heightened the value of labour of quality. This, Playfair claimed, had dislocated labour.<ref name="Reid, p. 368"/> Playfair enlarged on this speech in an article for ''The Contemporary Review'' of March 1888.<ref>Reid, pp. 368–369.</ref> Afterwards, Playfair delivered a speech to the [[National Liberal Club]], which was published as "On Industrial Competition and Commercial Freedom" by the Cobden Club. The Liberal Party leader, [[William Ewart Gladstone]], wrote to Playfair to thank him for his "admirable tract; so comprehensive, clear, simple in statement, rich in illustration".<ref>Reid, p. 369.</ref>

Having represented [[Leeds South (UK Parliament constituency)|Leeds South]] since 1885, Playfair left the [[British House of Commons|House of Commons]] in 1892 and was ennobled as '''Baron Playfair''', of [[St Andrews]] in the County of Fife.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=26323 |date=6 September 1892 |page=5090 }}</ref> He served as a [[Lord in Waiting]] (government whip in the [[House of Lords]]) under Gladstone and then [[Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery|Lord Rosebery]] between 1892 and 1895. He was further honoured when he was made a [[Order of the Bath|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==
[[File:The grave of Lyon Playfair, East Cemetery, St Andrews.jpg|thumb|The grave of Lyon Playfair, East Cemetery, St Andrews]]
Lord Playfair died at his home at Onslow Gardens in [[South Kensington]], London, in May 1898, aged 80. His body was returned to Scotland, where he 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.{{CN|date=December 2024}}

A memorial fountain was erected to Playfair in St Andrews in 1899, to a design by [[Robert Lorimer]].<ref>Dictionary of Scottish Architects: Robert Lorimer</ref> The main library at [[Imperial College London|Imperial College]] in London was originally named the [[Imperial College London Abdus Salam Library|Lyon Playfair Library]] in his honour.<ref name=scinat>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3lTNCwAAQBAJ&q=lyon+playfair&pg=PA151|title=Science for the Nation: Perspectives on the History of the Science Museum|pages=150–151|first=Peter|last=Morris|date=2010|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=9780230230095}}</ref>

==Family==
[[File:Edith, Lady Playfair.jpg|thumb|left|Edith, Lady Playfair (née Russell), [[John Singer Sargent]], 1884]]
His younger brothers were, [[William Smoult Playfair]], a well known obstetrician, and [[Lambert Playfair|Sir Lambert Playfair]], a soldier and diplomat.

Playfair married three times. He firstly married Margaret Eliza Oakes, daughter of James Oakes, in 1846. After her death in August 1855 he married Jean Ann Millington, 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.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.mfa.org/collections/object/edith-lady-playfair-edith-russell--32468|title=Edith, Lady Playfair (Edith Russell)|date=2017-01-05|work=Museum of Fine Arts, Boston|access-date=2017-12-28|language=en}}</ref>

==Legacy==
Playfair is credited with coining the quip "cannot see a forest for the trees of which it is composed".<ref>{{cite book | title = The Lore of Cathay, or the Intellect of China | publisher = Olipant, Anderson & Ferrier, 1900 | author = [[William Alexander Parsons Martin|William A P Martin]]| page=396}}</ref>

==Notes==
{{reflist|2}}

==References==
*[https://archive.org/details/memoirsandcorre00reidgoog <!-- quote=lyon playfair. --> ''Memoirs and Correspondence of Lyon Playfair''] by Wemyss Reid, Harper and Brothers, New York, 1899

==Further reading==
*[https://books.google.com/books?id=bKQOAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA1&dq=proceedings+royal+society+london#PPT9,M1 Obituary] of Lyon Playfair in ''Proceedings of the Royal Society of London'', volume LXIV, 1899 (pages ix – xi, near the end of the volume)

== External links ==
{{Commons category|Lyon Playfair, 1st Baron Playfair}}
* Blatchford, I, "Lyon Playfair: chemist and commissioner, 1818–1858", [http://journal.sciencemuseum.ac.uk/browse/issue-15/lyon-playfair/ Science Museum Journal, Issue 15, Spring 2021]
* {{Hansard-contribs | mr-lyon-playfair | Lyon Playfair }}
* {{cite EB1911|wstitle=Playfair, Lyon Playfair, 1st Baron|volume=21|page=831}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Playfair, Lyon 1st Baron Playfair}}
[[Category:1818 births|Playfair, Lyon Playfair, 1st Baron]]
[[Category:1898 deaths|Playfair, Lyon Playfair, 1st Baron]]
[[Category:Nobility from Fife]]
[[Category:19th-century Scottish chemists|Playfair, Lyon Playfair, 1st Baron]]
[[Category:Barons in the Peerage of the United Kingdom|Playfair, Lyon Playfair, 1st Baron]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society|Playfair, Lyon Playfair, 1st Baron]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh|Playfair, Lyon Playfair, 1st Baron]]
[[Category:Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath|Playfair, Lyon Playfair, 1st Baron]]
[[Category:Postmasters general of the United Kingdom|Playfair, Lyon Playfair, 1st Baron]]
[[Category:Alumni of the University of St Andrews|Playfair, Lyon Playfair, 1st Baron]]
[[Category:Alumni of the University of Edinburgh|Playfair, Lyon Playfair, 1st Baron]]
[[Category:Liberal Party (UK) Lords-in-Waiting|Playfair, Lyon Playfair, 1st Baron]]
[[Category:Liberal Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies]]
[[Category:Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom|Playfair, Lyon Playfair, 1st Baron]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1868–1874]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1874–1880]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1880–1885]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1885–1886]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1886–1892]]
[[Category:UK MPs who were granted peerages]]
[[Category:Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Edinburgh and St Andrews Universities]]
[[Category:Scottish Liberal Party MPs]]
[[Category:British Geological Survey]]
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