Thomas Alfred John Playfair

Brigadier Thomas Alfred John Playfair, (13 October 1890 – 9 August 1966) was an Australian politician, military officer and meat exporter. He served as a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council.

Early life Known throughout his life as "Jack", Playfair was born at Millers Point to shipping providore and meat exporter Edmund John Playfair and Edith Creer. His grandfather John Thomas Playfair had founded a successful wholesale meat business in The Rocks, Sydney provisioning Sydney's shipping trade. Jack Playfair attended Sydney Church of England Grammar School and learned the meat trade at the Smithfield Meat Market in London in 1906 before returning to the family business in Sydney – Thomas Playfair Ltd.

Military career In 1910, Playfair enlisted as a gunner in the Australian Field Artillery (New South Wales). He was promoted to lieutenant in 1913.

By 1926, he was chairman of directors of the firm founded by his grandfather. He modernised the plant and added a smallgoods factory which enabled the firm during the Second World War to become the largest supplier of canned sausages to the AIF and to the US forces in the Pacific.

Personal life Playfair married Madge Hardy in London on 29 August 1918; they had four children. He died at Darlinghurst, New South Wales, in 1966.