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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 SA 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 Lourenco Marques Lilian Sealy Haskins b. 1878 Warmley, Glos., d. 11 July 1956 S. Africa 2. (div. 1913) 2. 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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