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History
Lyon Playfair was born in Bengal, India, in 1818. He was sent from India to St Andrews to be raised by an aunt, in 1820. His mother joined him, but he did not see his father until he was 22 years old. He was educated at the parish school, a grammar school and then entered the University of St Andrews in 1832. He was sent to train as a merchant in Glasgow with an uncle, but his medical ambitions prevailed. He enrolled at Anderson's University and attended the chemistry classes of Thomas Graham. He continued his medical studies at Edinburgh University, and then University College, London. Here he became laboratory assistant to Thomas Graham. Playfair studied with the eminent organic chemist, Justus von Liebig, in 1839. His discoveries of a new fatty acid in the butter of nutmeg, and a new crystalline substance in cloves gave him an excellent reputation with Liebig. Playfair became honorary Professor of Chemistry at the Royal Institution of Manchester. He was a member of the Royal Commission on sanitation, and received a grant to study the efficiency of charcoal iron furnaces. He moved to London in 1845, becoming chemist to the Geological Survey, and worked on various research assignments for the Crown and the government, including trying to combat a series cholera epidemics. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1848. He was appointed Professor of Chemistry at the new government-run School of Mines, in 1851. He was appointed Secretary for Science in the new Department of Science and Art (DSA), in 1853. He accepted the Presidency of the Chemical Society, and also took up the Professorship of Chemistry at Edinburgh University, in 1858. He chaired a Royal Commission on the restrictions on herring fishing in 1862-1863, and then the cattle plague. He lobbyed for an investigation of the outcome of the Paris Universal Exhibition, in 1867. He presided over a commission looking into the administration of the civil service, which reported in 1875. At this time he was also involved in heated parliamentary debates on vivisection. He was appointed by William Gladstone as Deputy Speaker and Chairman of Ways in 1880. The issue of Irish Home Rule dominated this administration. He found he had a lack of support and resigned in 1882. In 1883 he was made KCB, and spent some years on the back benches. He served as President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, in 1885. He published his principal public addresses in Subjects of Social Welfare, 1889. Playfair was created Baron Playfair of St Andrews in 1892, whereupon he left the Commons and was made lord-in-waiting to Queen Victoria. He was appointed as GCB in 1895. He proposed the creation of a new museum at South Kensington in 1897, proposing the title 'Victorian Museum' in honour of the Queen's jubilee. He did not live to see the opening of the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1899. He died in 1898.