William Lambton. Photo: Chancellor, Dublin (no individual credited), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:William_Lambton_(1863%E2%80%931936).png
School period
Gallery of Sir William Lambton (William Lambton)
Eton College. Photo: Evka W, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Eton_College_front_4.jpg)
Gallery of Sir William Lambton (William Lambton)
Royal Military College, Sandhurst. Photo: Antony McCallum, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:RMAS18Je6-4685.jpg)
College/University
Career
Gallery of Sir William Lambton (William Lambton)
Coldstream Guards. Photo: User:jwhalifax, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Coldstream_Guards_Badge.png)
Gallery of Sir William Lambton (William Lambton)
Egyptian Army. Photo: U.S. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Chad J. McNeeley, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Defense.gov_photo_essay_090421-N-0696M-106.jpg)
Gallery of Sir William Lambton (William Lambton)
British Expeditionary Force. Photo: Royal Engineers No 1 Printing Company., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Royal_Irish_Rifles_ration_party_Somme_July_1916.jpg)
Other photo of Sir William Lambton (William Lambton)
Royal Military College, Sandhurst. Photo: Antony McCallum, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:RMAS18Je6-4685.jpg)
Other photo of Sir William Lambton (William Lambton)
Egyptian Army. Photo: U.S. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Chad J. McNeeley, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Defense.gov_photo_essay_090421-N-0696M-106.jpg)
Other photo of Sir William Lambton (William Lambton)
British Expeditionary Force. Photo: Royal Engineers No 1 Printing Company., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Royal_Irish_Rifles_ration_party_Somme_July_1916.jpg)
Sir William Lambton was a British Army officer and major-general who commanded the 4th Division on the Western Front during the First World War. He served in Egypt, the Sudan, South Africa, Ireland, and the Transvaal before holding senior staff and command appointments in the British Army.
Background
William Lambton was born on December 4, 1863, in Durham, England, the son of George Lambton, 2nd Earl of Durham, and Lady Beatrix Hamilton. He belonged to a prominent aristocratic family whose members included senior military and naval officers. His family background placed him within the social world from which many officers of the nineteenth-century British Army were recruited.
Lambton died at Cap-d'Ail, France, on October 11, 1936. He was buried at St. Barnabas' Church, Bournmoor, in County Durham.
Education
Lambton was educated at Eton College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. Eton, founded in 1440 by King Henry VI, was one of Britain's leading public schools and educated many members of the political, military, and administrative elite. The Royal Military College at Sandhurst, established in 1802 and later known as the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, trained officers for commissioned service in the British Army.
His education followed the established path for an officer entering an elite Guards regiment. He received no university education recorded in the available biographical data.
Lambton was commissioned into the Coldstream Guards as a lieutenant in February 1884. The Coldstream Guards, founded in the seventeenth century and among the senior regiments of the British Army, combined ceremonial duties with active service overseas. He became captain on May 18, 1892, and served as aide-de-camp to the Governor-General of Ireland from 1895.
In the late 1890s Lambton was seconded to the Egyptian Army. He took part in the Nile Expedition of 1898, including the battles of Atbara and Omdurman, and was promoted to major on September 29, 1898. He subsequently served in the Second Boer War, where he was wounded and mentioned in despatches.
During the early years of the twentieth century, Lambton held staff appointments in southern Africa. He served as military secretary to the Commander-in-Chief of the Transvaal and as military secretary to Lord Milner, the High Commissioner for Southern Africa, from December 1900. These positions belonged to the British military and civil administration established after the South African War.
Lambton became associated with the senior leadership of the Coldstream Guards, commanding the 1st Battalion from 1912. He served as Assistant Adjutant and Quartermaster-General for London District in 1913, an appointment concerned with administration and logistics within the British Army's home command structure. He was also Groom-in-Waiting to King George V from 1910 to 1916.
At the outbreak of the First World War, Lambton became military secretary to Field Marshal Sir John French, the commander-in-chief of the British Expeditionary Force. He was promoted to temporary brigadier-general in September 1914, to major-general in June 1915, and commanded the 4th Division from September 1915 until September 1917. The division fought on the Western Front during the Somme offensive in 1916, including the battles of Albert and Le Transloy, and during the Battle of Arras and the First Battle of the Scarpe in 1917.
Lambton's command ended after he was seriously injured in a riding accident in September 1917. He retired from the army in April 1920. His service career spanned the late Victorian imperial campaigns, the South African War, and the principal British operations on the Western Front during the First World War.
Lambton commanded the British 4th Division on the Western Front from 1915 to 1917, leading it during major operations of the Somme and Arras campaigns.
He served in the Nile Expedition of 1898 and the Second Boer War, gaining experience in two major imperial campaigns before becoming a senior British Army commander.
Membership
Lambton belonged to the Guards' Club and the Turf Club, social institutions associated with the officer class and sporting culture of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Britain.
Guards' Club
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United Kingdom
Turf Club
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United Kingdom
Interests
He belonged to the Guards' Club and the Turf Club.
Sport & Clubs
Lambton was associated with the sporting culture of the Turf Club.
Connections
Lambton was the son of George Lambton, 2nd Earl of Durham, and Lady Beatrix Hamilton. He married Lady Katherine de Vere Beauclerk, later known as Lady Katherine de Vere Somerset, on April 22, 1921. She was the daughter of William Beauclerk, 10th Duke of St Albans, and had previously been married to Henry Somerset. William and Katherine Lambton had no children.
Father:
George Lambton
George Lambton was the 2nd Earl of Durham.
Mother:
Lady Beatrix Hamilton
Wife:
Lady Katherine de Vere Beauclerk
She was the daughter of William Beauclerk, 10th Duke of St Albans, and had previously been married to Henry Somerset.
