PLAYFAIR, George Ranken (son of George Playfair). Educ. at Edinburgh univ.; M.D. 1838; surgeon in navy of H.E.I.C.S. and saw service in the Phlegthan during the first China war 1840; assistant surgeon Bengal 3 Nov. 1844; civil surgeon at Jaharunpore, where he gained experience as a lithotomist; on the Agra circle, present at siege of Lucknow 1857; inspector general 29 March 1871; retired surgeon general Bengal 31 March 1872; wrote on Continued fever. d. Longridge road, South Kensington, London 4 Oct. 1881. Lancet 8 Oct. 1881 p. 651, 15 Oct. p. 689.
PLAYFAIR, Sir Hugh Lyon (3 son of James Playfair 1738–1819, principal of St. Andrew’s univ.) b. Meigle, East Perthshire 17 Nov. 1786; educ. Dundee gr. sch. and St. Andrew’s univ.; lieut. Bengal artillery 14 May 1805; adjutant and quartermaster of the horse artillery 15 Nov. 1809, at siege of fortress of Ralunga Nov. 1814, captain 5 Oct. 1815; granted freedom of city of St. Andrew’s 1820; superintendent of the great military road, telegraph towers and post office department between Calcutta and Benares 1820–7; major in command of the fourth battalion of artillery at Dum-Dum June 1827 to 4 July 1831, resigned the service 10 Feb. 1834; provost of St. Andrew’s 1842 to death; established a public library and revived the celebrated St. Andrew’s golf club 1834; his portrait by sir J. W. Gordon placed in the old town hall 1847; LL.D. St. Andrew’s 1856; knighted at St. James’s palace 12 March 1856; author of First catechism of the principles of religion 1853. d. St. Leonard’s, St. Andrew’s 21 Jany. 1861. D. Louden’s Biographical sketch of sir H. L. Playfair (1874); Memoirs of sir H. L. Playfair (1861) portrait; I.L.N. x 176 (1847) portrait, xxxviii 103 (1861).
PLAYFAIR, William Henry (son of James Playfair of London, architect). b. Russel sq. London July 1789; pupil of Wm. Starke of Glasgow, architect; architect in Edinburgh 1812 to death; laid out part of the new town 1815; rebuilt and enlarged the university buildings 1817–24; designed the Royal and Regent terraces 1829; designed the observatory 1814–18, advocates’ library 1819, royal institution 1822–36, college of surgeons 1830, St. Stephen’s church 1826–8, and the Free church college 1846–50; constructed Donaldson’s hospital in the Tudor style 1842–8; designed the monument to his uncle professor John Playfair 1820, and that to Dugald Stewart on the Calton hill 1830; designed the National gallery of Scotland in the classical style, first stone laid 30 Aug. 1850, and the unfinished national monument on the Calton Hill 1822–6; his classical buildings have gained for Edinburgh the sobriquet of the ‘Modern Athens’; built many country houses and mansions; author of Report concerning completion of the college of Edinburgh 1816; Report on laying out the new town between Edinburgh and Leith 1819. d. 17 Great Stuart street, Edinburgh 19 March 1857. Dictionary of architecture vi 134 (1881); Building News iii 359–60 (1857).
PLENDERLEATH, Charles. Ensign 89 foot 29 May 1796; lieut. 49 foot 6 March 1797, lieut. colonel 4 June 1813 to 1814, when placed on h.p., sold out Jany. 1826; C.B. 4 June 1815; present at battle of Copenhagen 2 April 1801; severely wounded at Stoney creek in America. d. Florence 1 Jany. 1854.
PLEON, Tom, stage name of Frederick Pleon Whitehouse. b. 1862; appeared at Drury lane when 3 years old; acted a miniature clown and sang Hot codlins and Tippertiwichet; was the duke of York in Richard III; served with the Moore and Burgess minstrels as Picaninny Tommy; appeared with professor Anderson and Frederic Maccabe; was seen with his mother madame Pleon at the music halls under name of general Tom Dot, his brother Henry being known as major Mite; the brothers Pleon then became Ethiopian comedians and banjo performers; a banjo player and an acrobatic dancer with a white face; acted with the Wood family in the sketch The Organ crank; was in the pantomimes at Drury Lane 1887–91. d. Brook st. Kennington park road, Surrey 25 April 1892.
PLEWS, John Mackay. b. 1832; proprietor of the Vale of Mowbray brewery, Bedale, Yorkshire, founded in 1795; erected a new brewery at Leeming lane, Bedale, and was his own architect 1868; had branches at Darlington, Middlesbro’, and Durham; was a wine and spirit merchant, brewer and maltster; brewed ten varieties of ale and stout; resided Fencote hall, near Bedale. d. Scarborough 13 Dec. 1889, left £131,203 19 9. A. Barnard’s Noted breweries iv 410–35 (1891); The Brewers’ Journal 15 June 1890 p. 385.
PLEYDELL-BOUVERIE, Edward (2 son of 3 earl of Radnor 1779–1869). b. 26 April 1818; educ. Harrow 1828 and Trin. coll. Camb., M.A. 1838; précis writer to lord Palmerston Jan. to June 1840; barrister I.T. 27 Jany. 1843; contested Salisbury 4 May and 24 Nov. 1843; M.P. Kilmarnock 1844–74; contested Berkshire 22 July 1865; contested Kilmarnock 6 Feb. 1874; contested Liskeard 3 April 1880; under secretary of state for home department July 1850 to March 1852; chairman of committees of house of commons April 1853 to March 1855; vice-president of board of trade March to Aug. 1855; paymaster general of the forces and treasurer of navy 1855; P.C. 31 March 1855; president of poor law board Aug. 1855 to Feb. 1858; one of the committee of council on education 1857; second church estate comr. Aug. 1859 to Nov. 1865; an ecclesiastical comr. for England 1869 to death; member of corporation of foreign bondholders 1877, chairman of the corporation 1878, readjusted the debts of Turkey, Spain, and other countries; director of the Great Western railway company and of the Peninsular and Oriental company; wrote many letters in The Times over the initials E. B. P. d. 44 Wilton crescent, London 16 Dec. 1889. Times 17 Dec. 1889 pp. 10, 11.
PLEYDELL-BOUVERIE, Philip (4 son of 2 earl of Radnor 1749–1828). b. Bath 21 Oct. 1788; a banker in London; M.P. Cockermouth 1830–1; M.P. Downton, Wilts. 1831–2; M.P. Berks. 1857–65; sheriff of Somerset 1843; author of Vindication of a churchman for desiring the abolition of church rates 1861. d. Clyffe hall, near Devizes 23 May 1872.
PLINT, Thomas. b. 1797; cloth merchant Leeds; statist; was active in agitation for repeal of the corn laws; sec. to the Yorkshire union of mechanics’ institutes some years; a contributor to reviews and newspapers; author of Speech delivered at West Riding meeting of Anti-corn law deputies 1851; Crime in England, its relation, character, and extent 1851; Voluntaryism in England and Wales, or the census of 1851. d. Springfield place, Leeds 25 Dec. 1857. R. V. Taylor’s Biographia Leodiensis (1865) 471.
PLINT, Thomas Edward. b. 1823; stock and share broker Leeds, suspended payment 1860; had a collection of paintings, cost £25,000, including the Black Brunswicker, sold for 780 guineas, and the Proscribed Royalist by J. E. Millais, 525 guineas, his pictures were sold by Christies on 7 and 8 March 1862, realising £18,391. d. Leeds 11 July 1861. R. V. Taylor’s Biographia Leodiensis (1865) 497; Art Journal Aug. 1861 p. 255, April 1862 p. 105.