William Playfair was born at St Andrews, the son of George Playfair, inspector-general of hospitals in Bengal. He was educated in St Andrews and then studied medicine at Edinburgh, where he graduated in 1856. After a visit to Paris, he enlisted, in 1857, in the Bengal Medical Service and served as an assistant surgeon at Oude during the Mutiny and as professor of surgery at Calcutta Medical College from 1859 to 1860. Ill health caused his early retirement, and in 1863, following a brief period of practice in St Petersburg, he settled in London and was elected assistant physician for diseases of women and children at King’s College Hospital. Nine years later he became full physician and professor of obstetric medicine. He acquired a large midwifery practice and was appointed Physician Accoucheur to the Duchess of Edinburgh and the Duchess of Connaught. He was the author of a popular 'Treatise of the Science and Practice of Midwifery' (1876) and co-editor, with Allbutt, of a 'System of Gynaecology' (1896), as well as a contributor to Quain’s 'Dictionary of Medicine'. Two years before he retired from King’s in 1898 he was involved in a slander action, brought by a patient who was also his relative, in which damages of £12,000 were awarded against him – an amount reduced to £9,200 by a settlement between the parties. The case was a cause célèbre at the time. But although opinions were strongly divided, nothing more than an indiscretion by Playfair was concerned, and his professional reputation did not suffer.