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Name: PLAYNE, Somerset FRGS

Birth Date: 8 Aug 1875 Forwood Minchinhampton

Death Date: 10 Aug 1944 Okareka, New Zealand

First Date: 1899 - Visited the US before he was 20

Profession: Settled in S. Africa as an ostrich farmer, trader, big-game hunter & storekeeper. Then worked his way up through Nyasaland & the Rhodesias and arrived EA 1899. Joined a literary firm in England & travelled extensively in Far East

Married: 1. In Lourenço Marques 31 Oct 1904 Lilian Sealey Haskins b. 17 Sep 1878 Warmley, Glos., d. 11 July 1956 Port Shepstone, Natal, S. Africa (div. 1914. She prev. m. Joseph Henry Hanham 1860-1926 and later m. Sir Francis Claude Shelmerdine 1884-1945); 2. In New Zealand 1916 Lucy Mary Standidge b. 22 Mar 1891 Greymouth, New Zealand

Author: 'East Africa, Its People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources'

Book Reference: Gillett, North

School: Clifton College; St. Edward's School, Oxford

General Information:

Traveller, explorer, chronicler, publisher

Wikipedia Playne was a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. In order to publish his travelogue, Playne started a publishing house named "The Foreign and Colonial Compiling and Publishing Company" in 1908. First he travelled to British East Africa and wrote a book about it. Later he wrote books about Cape Colony, the Orange Free State, and New Zealand between 1908 and 1913. Playne arrived in India in 1913 and stayed in the Madras Club (now the Express Avenue mall) of Madras. He travelled almost 7,000 miles on motorcycle and produced his travelogue about southern India. Due to World War I he could not return to England. He stayed some more years and wrote books about the Punjab and Bengal.

1939 England and Wales Register living in Henley with wife

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