Dr William Smoult Playfair FRCP (27 July 1836 – 13 August 1903) was a leading Scottish obstetric physician and academic.

[2] Playfair was shortly elected assistant physician for diseases of women and children at King's College Hospital.

He was buried there in the new (eastern) cemetery in the town, against the central dividing wall (near the large monument to John Tulloch).

[3] Playfair, who was related to Kitson by marriage (she was married to but separated from his wife's younger brother), considered in his professional opinion that she had recently been pregnant.

When Playfair decided to exclude female members of his family from her company, on moral grounds, Kitson sued.

Leading doctors spoke in court in support of his actions but the judge found them unacceptable, in line with general public opinion on medical confidentiality.

[3] Playfair was a prolific author, and wrote:[2] He was joint editor with Clifford Allbutt of a System of Gynæcology (1896; 2nd edition revised by Thomas Watts Eden, 1906).