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Ernest Lamb, 1st Baron Rochester

British Liberal and National Labour politician (1876-1955)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 1, 2024
Entity authorityQ5393431 ↗
Source-derived summary

Ernest Henry Lamb, 1st Baron Rochester, CMG (4 September 1876 – 13 January 1955) was a British Liberal and National Labour politician who served as Paymaster General from 1931 to 1935 in the National Government of Ramsay MacDonald.

The eldest son of Benjamin Lamb of Yorkshire, Ernest was educated at Dulwich College and Wycliffe College before training as an electrical engineer. He specialised in the new technology of telephony, travelling extensively in Europe in this twenties. He returned to England and formed the New System Private Telephone Company, and was also chairman of the family firm of transport contractors, Lamb Sons and Company.

He entered public life when he was elected to the common council of the City of London, later becoming a deputy alderman and lieutenant of the city. He subsequently became a member of the Port of London Authority and chairman of the Chatham and District Water Board.

He then turned to national politics and was elected to parliament for Rochester in 1906 as a Liberal. He lost his seat in the January 1910 general election, but regained the seat in the December 1910 general election. He continued to hold this seat until the constituency was abolished in 1918.

Lamb was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in 1907, and was knighted in 1914.

Editorial summary

“Ernest Lamb, 1st Baron Rochester” enters the record as british Liberal and National Labour politician (1876-1955). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Ernest, Lamb and Baron can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1876, 1955, 1931, 1935—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1876-09-04. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Ernest, Lamb and Baron.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Ernest Lamb, 1st Baron Rochester” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Ernest, Lamb and Baron provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 1, 2024. The linked authority identifier is Q5393431. VIAF identifies the subject as 21146825396307632245. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1876, 1955, 1931 and 1935.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
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Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Ernest Lamb, 1st Baron Rochester”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Ernest Lamb, 1st Baron Rochester primary sources, Ernest Lamb, 1st Baron Rochester archive and Ernest research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Ernest Lamb, 1st Baron Rochester”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Ernest Lamb, 1st Baron Rochester” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.