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George Macdonald Home Playfair served twice in South Formosa. The first
time, in the 1870s, when the Taiwan consulate at Taiwan-fu (Tainan) was
in charge of the whole island of Formosa, covering the ports of Tamsui,
Anping and Takow. The second time when the Taiwan Consulate covered only
Taiwan-fu, Anping, Takow, and the southern part of Formosa. The northern
part of Formosa was the responsibility of the Tamsui Consulate, where
George Macdonald Home Playfair also served, as did his second cousin
Frank William Walter Playfair of the Japan Consular Service.
On his first appointment to Formosa, George
Macdonald Home Playfair was stationed at Taiwan-fu [臺灣府] as Third
Assistant at the British Consulate of the Island of Formosa from 14
November 1876 through 1877. In December 1876 George Playfair made a
visit to the southernmost parts of Formosa in the company of the
outgoing Acting Commissioner John McLeavy Brown of the Imperial Maritime
Customs, and the incoming Acting Commissioner Thomas Francis Hughes. The
party travelled down from Takow [打狗] aboard the Customs Revenue Cutter ,
the Ling-Feng [凌風], and first visited the new district capital of
Heng-ch’un [恆春] about 6 miles inland which was under construction. For
Playfair a major part of the reason for visiting the South was to dispel
rumours in the Hongkong newspapers of unrest in that district; the
rumours proved unfounded mainly because the new Chinese District
Magistrate was paying the principal chief of the aborigines 72 silver
dollars quarterly to maintain the peace. Playfair, McLeavy Brown and
Hughes also the visited the promontory at Oluanpi [鵝鑾鼻] which had been
leased from the aborigines the previous year by the Imperial Maritime
Customs as the site for the planned South Cape Lighthouse. During 1877
Playfair served as Acting Consul from 21 February, when Acting Consul
Thomas Watters departed to become Consul at Wuhu [蕪湖], to 18 April 1877,
when Vice-Consul Alexander Frater arrived from Tamsui [淡水] to take
charge.
On his second appointment to Taiwan, First
Assistant George Macdonald Home Playfair was stationed at Taiwan-fu as
the Acting Consul of the Taiwan Consular District, or South Formosa,
from 4 June 1888 to 27 July 1889 during the absence of Consul Pelham
Laird Warren who had taken Home Leave. Acting Consul Playfair also
served as the Vice-Consul of the German Consulate in South Formosa, so
when the German firm of Lauts & Haesloop had 55 boxes (about 15 and a
half cwt.) of camphor seized from their agent in Lukang [鹿港] on 18
January 1889, Playfair was obliged to act. He did so efficiently and by
5 February 1889 was able to report to Sir John Walsham, the British
Minister at Peking, and to Dr. Constantin Merz, the German Acting-Consul
at Amoy [廈門], that the Tao-t’ai [道臺], or Circuit Intendant, had promised
to release Lauts & Haesloop’s camphor and to refund any expenses. The
timing was fortunate as the first British firm was on the point of
re-entering the camphor trade when the seizure took place. Playfair
identifies October, November and December as being the ‘dead season’ for
commerce; and April, May and June, the sugar season, as being the active
months. George Playfair also reports on the erection of a telegraph line
between Tainan and Anping which would enable the Anping Consulate to
become a complete alternative to the old Tainan Consulate. Finally,
Playfair reports on the unsuccessful May 1889 visit of Liu Ming-ch’uan
[劉銘傳] to the South, and attributes Liu’s dislike of Consul Warren to
Warren’s ‘energetic action regarding Russell & Co’s compradore’.
George Macdonald Home Playfair was born on 22
August 1850 at Shahjehanpore, Bengal, India, the son of George Ranken
Playfair, the Surgeon-General of the Bengal Medical Service, and Frances
Harriet Playfair née Home. The Playfair family was originally from St
Andrews, Fife, and the University of St Andrews holds many family
documents. George M. H. Playfair was educated at Cheltenham College,
Gloucestershire, and Trinity College, Dublin. George Macdonald Home
Playfair joined the China Consular Service as a Student Interpreter
through the June 1872 Competitive Entrance Examinations for the China,
Japan and Siam Consular Services, the first year of open competition.
After his two years of studying Mandarin Chinese at the British Legation
in Peking, Playfair was appointed acting Assistant Chinese Secretary in
1875. In 1876, George Macdonald Home Playfair was promoted to the rank
of Third Assistant and appointed to the British Consulate at Taiwan
[臺灣].
George Macdonald Home Playfair was stationed as
Third Assistant at the British Consulate on Formosa from 14 November
1876 through 1877. During 1877 Playfair served as Acting Consul from 21
February, when Acting Consul Thomas Watters departed to become Consul at
Wuhu [蕪湖], to 18 April 1877, when Vice-Consul Alexander Frater arrived
from Tamsui [淡水] to take charge. George Playfair departed to Foochow
[福州] at the end of 1877.
George M. H. Playfair was stationed at Foochow
from the beginning of 1878, in which year he was promoted to Second
Assistant, until the start of 1881, when he took Home Leave. George M.
H. Playfair’s father, George Ranken Playfair, M.D., was seriously ill
and died, aged 65, on 28 October 1881. George Ranken Playfair was living
in a boarding house at 26 Longridge Road, Kensington, and his son was
able to spend his last few months with him.
Upon his return from England at the end of 1881,
George Macdonald Home Playfair was stationed as Second Assistant at
Pakhoi [北海], in the Gulf of Tonkin, on 15 December. Playfair remained at
Pakhoi until 2 April 1883, spending much of 1882 and 1883 as acting
Consul at Pakhoi. George Playfair was acting Consul on 23 August 1882,
when Chinese Naval Forces bombarded Pakhoi in an endeavour to arrest a
French Roman Catholic priest to whom acting Consul Playfair had given
refuge. Chinese Imperial orders had been given to arrest all French
subjects, as there was great tension between France and China over
Tonkin, the northern part of Vietnam, that would eventually lead to the
Sino–French War of August 1884 to April 1885 and the concurrent Blockade
of Formosa.
On 24 August 1883 George M. H. Playfair was
posted as Second Assistant at Amoy [廈門]. A few months later, on 21
January 1884, George Macdonald Home Playfair married Winifred May
Fraser, the daughter of John Fraser (deceased), Law Secretary and
Registrar of the Supreme Court for China and Japan at Shanghai, and
Elmira Jane Fraser née Werry, at St John’s Cathedral, Hongkong. Winifred
May Fraser’s grandfather was Simon Fraser, the Commissioner of Delhi,
from 1853 to 1857, prior to the Indian Mutiny. Their first child, a
daughter named Dorothy Isabel Rose Playfair was born in December 1884 at
Kulangsu, Amoy, and on 10 July 1885 the whole family of George, Winifred
and the six-month old Dorothy Playfair left Amoy for Shanghai [上海],
where George was acting Vice-Consul from 13 July 1885. Tragedy struck
when Dorothy Isabel Rose Playfair, just one year old, died in January
1886. George and Winifred Playfair were given 3 weeks’ leave to visit
Japan to recover from shock of losing their only child.
George M. H. Playfair was promoted to First
Assistant on 1 July 1886 during his prolonged absence. Upon his return
to Shanghai Playfair served as First Assistant from 13 July to 22
December 1886, when he took Home Leave as Winifred May Playfair was
pregnant again and wished to bear the child in England. Their second
child, also a daughter, was christened Marjorie Playfair Playfair on 5
July 1887 at St Philip’s Church, Kensington, London. Upon his return
alone to Shanghai in 1888 First Assistant Playfair was appointed to
South Formosa.
On his second appointment to Taiwan, First
Assistant George Macdonald Home Playfair was stationed at Taiwan-fu as
the Acting Consul of the Taiwan Consular District, or South Formosa,
from 4 June 1888 to 27 July 1889. George Playfair served as Acting
Consul during the absence of Consul Pelham Laird Warren who had taken
Home Leave.
Following the return of Consul Pelham Laird
Warren to Formosa on 27 July 1889, George Macdonald Home Playfair was
moved to the north of Formosa to serve as Acting Consul of the Tamsui
[淡水] Consular District from 4 August 1889 to 27 February 1890 to reside
at Tamsui.
George Macdonald Home Playfair then served
briefly at Chinkiang [鎮江] before being appointed Acting Vice-Consul in
charge of shipping at Shanghai in 11 April 1890. G M H Playfair, who had
been promoted to Vice-Consul on 1 April 1891, and to Senior Vice-Consul
on 20 August 1892, remained at Shanghai until 15 June 1893, when he took
Home Leave. During his Home Leave Playfair was promoted to Consul on 15
June 1893 posted to Ningpo [寧波] on 23 April 1894, though he did not take
up the post until his return from Home Leave on 1 September 1894. Consul
Playfair remained at Ningpo until 13 May 1899, although from 1 March
1899 he had served as officiating Consul at Swatow following the
unexpected resignation of Consul Colin Mackenzie Ford on 1 March 1899
due to ill-health. On 13 May 1899 Playfair was appointed Consul at
Foochow and, although he took Home Leave from 13 November 1900 to 6
April 1902 and had other absences, George Macdonald Home Playfair
remained the Foochow Consul until his retirement at the age of 60 on 1
December 1910.
George M H Playfair retired to live alone in the
family home of 87 Victoria Street, Middlesex. Playfair wrote several
books about China (see below). George Macdonald Home Playfair died 29
August 1917 at the Home Hospital, 16 Fitzroy Square, Middlesex.
Apart from the fact that, according to Coates,
George Playfair held a children’s Christmas Eve party at the Ningpo
Consulate in the years following his 1894 Home Leave, there is no record
of his wife, Winifred May Playfair, or daughter, Marjorie Playfair
Playfair, ever coming to China after Marjorie’s birth in 1887. Nor,
indeed, is there much evidence that they lived together during
Playfair’s Home Leaves or after his retirement.
His widow, Winifred May Playfair, a Christian
Science Practitioner, and daughter, Marjorie Playfair Playfair, are
recorded as living at 8 Cheltenham Terrace from 1911 until 1931, before
moving to Imperial House, 151-154 Grosvenor Road, S.W.1. Winifred May
Playfair died peacefully aged 77 on 7 April 1941 at Imperial House.
George Macdonald Home Playfair’s sole child,
Marjorie Playfair Playfair, moved after her mother’s death to 148
Marsham Court, Westminster, and died at Hawthorne House, a nursing home
for Christian Scientists, Hampstead Heath, London N.W.3 aged 62 on 17
November 1949.
Some of the books that George Macdonald Home Playfair wrote,
edited, or translated are:
The cities and towns of China : a geographical dictionary. By
George Macdonald Home Playfair. 1st Edition with Foreword by Playfair,
Foochow, 22 August 1879. 2nd Edition, published by Kelly and Walsh,
Shanghai, 1910. (Revised Version of Edouard Constant Biot’s book of the
same name published in French in 1842.)
The Chinese Government: A Manual of Chinese Titles, Categorically
Arranged and Explained. Originally by William Frederick Mayers,
revised by George Macdonald Home Playfair. Published by Kelly & Walsh,
Shanghai, 1897.
An Anglo-Chinese Calendar for the years 1892-1911. By George
Macdonald Home Playfair. Published by Kelly and Walsh, Shanghai, 1896.
(gives corresponding Chinese and Gregorian calendars)
The best man comedietta in two scenes, with songs. By George
Macdonald Home Playfair. Published by Kelly and Walsh, Shanghai, 1895.
Playfair also wrote various articles for publications such as The
China Review. In particular China Review published his
Notes on the language of the Formosa savage, in Volume VII,
Number 5, (1879), pages 342-345. |
