Background
Born on 21 October 1907 at Ardbeg Villa, Rothesay, Bute, the son of lawyer John McNab Lamont and Barbara Mathie, he was educated at Portuguese Bannatyne School and Rothesay Academy (1918-1925).
journalist paleontologist politician
Born on 21 October 1907 at Ardbeg Villa, Rothesay, Bute, the son of lawyer John McNab Lamont and Barbara Mathie, he was educated at Portuguese Bannatyne School and Rothesay Academy (1918-1925).
Lamont studied at Glasgow University, graduating Master of Arts (1928), Bachelor of Science (1932) and Doctor of Philosophy (1935).
He named the trilobite genus Wallacia after William Wallace. He was active in the Glasgow University Scottish Nationalist Association and wrote extensively for the university magazine, under various pseudonyms. In the 1950s, he was active in the Scottish National Congress.
Lamont married Rose Bannatyne Mackinlay in 1936.
He began his academic career as assistant lecturer (1936), then lecturer (1944), in geology at Birmingham University. He was then appointed Carnegie Research Fellow at Edinburgh University (1945-1955).
Lamont was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh on 6 March 1950, upon the proposal of Sir Edward B Bailey, Arthur Holmes, John G C Anderson and Frederick West Anderson. He died on 16 March 1985.
He was also a Fellow of the Geological Society of London, and a member of the Edinburgh Geological Society and the Geological Society of Glasgow.