pointment, on the resignation of the ministry in June.
In 1892 Playfair's many services to the State were rewarded, on Gladstone's accession to power for the fourth time, by his elevation to the peerage under the style of Baron Playfair of St. Andrews. In the same year he was made lord-in-waiting to the queen. His time was still devoted to public affairs, and in 1894–5 he served as a member of the aged poor commission, and afterwards took an active part in negotiations for the arbitration of the Venezuela question, in which his intimate knowledge of American politics, gained during his annual visits to his third wife's home, was of great service. In 1895, on the recommendation of Lord Rosebery, he received the order of Grand Cross of the Bath.
In 1896 his health began to fail. He passed the winter of 1897 at Torquay, but returned in April to his residence in Onslow Gardens, where he died on 29 May 1898. He was buried at St. Andrews. Playfair was below the average height, and was strikingly intellectual in appearance. He was gifted with great delicacy and tact, had a strong sense of humour, and was an admirable conversationalist. He received many honours from foreign governments in connection with his work at various international exhibitions.
Playfair was married three times: first, in 1846, to Margaret Eliza, daughter of James Oakes of Biddings House, Alfreton, who died in 1855; secondly, in 1857, to Jean Ann, daughter of Crawley Millington of Crawley House, who died in 1877; thirdly, in 1878, to Edith, daughter of Samuel Hammond Russell of Boston, United States of America. By his first wife he had an only son, George James Playfair, who succeeded him as second baron.
[Memoirs and Corresp. of Lyon Playfair by Sir Wemyss Reid (containing a large amount of autobiographical matter), 1899; biographical sketch in Nature, lviii. 128, by Sir Henry Roscoe; Lucy's Diary of Two Parliaments, 1886, vol. ii.]
PLAYFAIR, Sir ROBERT LAMBERT (1828–1899), author and administrator, born at St. Andrews in 1828, was the grandson of James Playfair [q. v.], principal of the university of St. Andrews, and the third son of George Playfair (1782–1846), chief inspector-general of hospitals in Bengal, by his wife Janet (d. 1862), daughter of John Ross. Sir Lyon Playfair, baron Playfair [q. v. Suppl.], was his elder brother. Robert entered the Madras artillery on 12 Jan. 1846. On 28 Sept. 1858 he attained the rank of captain, and on 18 Feb. 1861 he was transferred to the Madras staff corps. On 30 June 1863 he was given the local rank of lieutenant-colonel at Zanzibar, and on 12 June 1866 he was promoted to be major in the staff corps. He retired from the army as lieutenant-colonel on 1 Nov. 1867. From November 1848 to May 1850 Playfair was associated with Sir James Outram [q. v.] in a quasi-political mission to Syria. From 28 March 1852 till 26 Sept. 1853 he served as assistant executive engineer at Aden. In 1854, when Outram became first political resident there, he chose Playfair as his assistant. In this capacity under Outram and his successors Playfair remained at Aden from 8 July 1854 till 17 Dec. 1862. He acted as temporary political resident from 19 April 1860 till 30 Oct. 1861, and from 10 Jan. till 3 April 1862. While assistant resident he took a share in putting down the traffic in slaves between Arabia and Somaliland, and in the events connected with the British occupation of Perim in 1857. At the time of his appointment he had qualified as interpreter in the Arabic language, and he put the period of his residence to good account by making researches into the history of that part of Arabia. His work was published at Bombay in 1859 as No. 49 of the :new series of 'Selections from the Records of the Bombay Government,' under the title 'History of Arabia Felix or Yemen from the Commencement of the Christian Era to the Present Time.' It included an account of the British settlement at Aden. In 1860 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.
On 17 Dec. 1862 Playfair was appointed political agent at Zanzibar, and on 13 July 1863 was nominated consul there. On 20 June 1867 he became consul-general in Algeria, where he remained during the rest of his diplomatic career. On 16 March 1885 he was made consul-general for Algeria and Tunis, and on 2 Aug. 1889 consul-general for the territory of Algeria and the northern coast of Africa. He acquired an extensive knowledge not only of Algeria, but of the Mediterranean countries generally, visiting among other places the Balearic Islands and Tunis, where in 1876 he explored the previously almost unknown Khomair country. In 1874 he contributed to Murray's series 'A Handbook for Travellers in Algeria;' a second edition including Tunis appeared in 1878, and a fifth in 1895. In 1881 he wrote for the same series 'A Handbook to the Mediterranean Cities, Coasts, and Islands,' which reached a third edition in 1890. During his residence in Algeria he studied the official archives of the con-
