Leaving school in 1914, he was employed as a temporary Clerk in the Army Audit Office, Headquarters, Eastern Command.
He was 6 ft 5in tall, with a long reach, and quickly made his mark as a rower: In March 1919 he was picked in the place of R.C.
Guthrie (indisposed) to row in the Jesus College crew in the semi-finals of the Fixed-seat, Eight oared Races.
In July 1921 Playford won the Silver Goblets at Henley in a coxed pair with John Campbell, defeating Guy Oliver Nickalls and Richard Lucas "easily" in the final.
Eason of Trinity College, Oxford, in the final for the Silver Goblets and Nickalls Challenge Cup at the Henley Royal Regatta on 7 July 1923.
[11] When the Second World War broke out, Playford took leave of absence to play a short, but exciting, role in hostilities: "Even ... the Reverend Humphrey Playford, now rising 40 [sic], had managed to be driving ambulances in Nazi-threatened France [in the summer of 1940] (before beating a hasty retreat)”.
[13] Playford was married, in Cambridge in 1959, to Elizabeth Mary Bickersteth ("Betty") Birks, the daughter of the late Dr.