Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Biography - Hugh Robert Lambert - Service Number 1374

Hugh Robert Lambert, born in 1897 in the suburb of Waverly, was 19 years old when he volunteered to serve in World War One.(1) Hugh was the son of Edwin John Lambert and Ada Mary Walsh and was raised in a presbyterian household with six brothers and a sister.(2) His father was a policeman and his older brother, John Thomas Lambert also served in World War One.(3) Hugh Robert Lambert attended Cleveland Street Superior Public School for his primary years and successfully attained a scholarship to Sydney Technical College after partaking in the District and High School’s examination in 1909.(4) At Sydney Technical College, he excelled in drawing and carpentry, eventually becoming an engineering student.(5)

Hugh Robert Lambert enlisted on the 17th of September 1914, just one month after the First World War began and Australia pledged full support for Britain.(6) He was assigned to the 8th Army Service Corps Company with the rank of ‘driver’ as a logistics company initially for the First Division of the Australian Imperial Force(AIF). His unit embarked for Europe on the 22nd of December 1914 on the HMAT A40 Ceramic from Melbourne. The company sailed to England, arriving two months later and was renamed the 301st Company Australian Motor Transport Army Service Corps.(7) 

Lambert’s unit was renamed to the 17th Division Ammunition Sub Park upon arriving in France in July 1915 because it was assigned to the British 17th Division.(8) He was in one of the first Australian units to serve in France, eight months before the rest of the AIF, which were occupied in the Campaign of Gallipoli. Hugh Robert Lambert first saw action in the South-East of Ypres where a section of the Battle of the Somme was raging on as the 17th Division took part in fighting at the Bluff in 1916.(9) Lambert, with the rank of ‘driver’, carried out duties of transporting artillery pieces, ammunition and supplies from railways to the front lines for their assigned unit.(10) His unit was renamed the 1st Division Ammunition Sub Park in April 1916 when it was reassigned to the First Australian Division, following the First Australian Division’s arrival to fight on the Western Front. Lambert was promoted to Corporal on the 5th of August 1916, having served for an entire year in the harsh conditions of the war.(11) From then on, he was put in charge of 9-16 men and operated in France and Belgium as the tide of war began to change in favour of the Allies. The nature of his duties was crucial to the front lines so he was severely reprimanded with the loss of ten days of pay on the 4th of November 1917 because of a lighted camp loaded with ammunition, which had the possibility of being detected by the enemy and posed a dangerous hazard if the ammunition loaded there caught fire.(12) He was assigned from the 1st Division Ammunition Sub Park to the 3rd Australian Field Artillery Brigade Ammunition Column on the 24th of March 1917 and was stationed there for the remainder of the war. He returned to Australia on the 3rd of December 1918 and was awarded the 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal for active service during the war.(13)

After World War One, Lambert visited the United States of America from 1919-1924 and he immigrated to the United States of America in 1925 working as a salesman.(14) During the outbreak of World War Two and the looming threat of a Japanese invasion of Australia, Lambert returned to Australia to serve in the Reserve Citizen Military Forces and was assigned the rank of ‘lieutenant’ on the 9th of April 1942, a commissioned officer in charge of a small platoon.(15) The Reserve Citizen Military Forces were tasked with the defence of Australia and its territories in Papua New Guinea. Fortunately, Lambert did not see active duty.

Lambert settled down in Australia after the Second World War concluded and became an alderman for Hunter’s Hill City Council.(16) He strongly advocated for the community and made significant contributions to New South Wales, such as pushing against the approval of houseboats on the Parramatta River that would have caused severe pollution.(17) He expressed outrage and frustration after the Local Government Annual Conference in 1947 where votes ruled against the compulsory immunisation of children against diphtheria, voicing “Isn’t it time that proven prophylactic measures particularly vaccination against smallpox and immunisation against diphtheria, be made compulsory in this state?”(18) Lambert retired during the Second World War and remained unmarried until he passed away at the age of 63 on the 9th of August, 1960 in Ryde.(19)

References (Endnotes)
1.  Virtual War Memorial, “Hugh Robert Lambert”, Virtual War Memorial, https://vwma.org.au/explore/people/284546

2.  FamilySearch.org, “Hugh Robert Lambert Male 6 May 1897–9 August 1960”, https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/GMHB-K76/hugh-robert-lambert-1897-1960

3.  State Library New South Wales, “Lambert, John Thomas”, The Dictionary of Sydney, https://dictionaryofsydney.org/person/lambert_john_thomas

4.  National Library of Australia, “Evening News (Sydney, NSW : 1869 - 1931)”, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article114765849

5. K. Stevenson, “THS 1911 Division I First Year”, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gQx-JHZ6tivqgeE9_NM8TIzO4QsEQdAg/view

6.  Virtual War Memorial, “Hugh Robert Lambert”, op. cit.

7.  Australian War Memorial, “301 Company Australian Motor Transport Army Service Corps (MTASC) at the 17th Division Ammunition ...” (Australian War Memorial), https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/H01898

8.  ibid

9. C. Baker, “17th (Northern) Division” (The Long, Long Trail, July 16, 2015), https://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/army/order-of-battle-of-divisions/17th-northern-division/

10.  C. Baker, “Army Service Corps Mechanical Transport Companies” (The Long, Long Trail, August 2, 2015), https://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/army/regiments-and-corps/the-army-service-corps-in-the-first-world-war/army-service-corps-mechanical-transport-companies/

11.  National Archives of Australia, “Lambert Hugh Robert 1914-1920”, https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Gallery151/dist/JGalleryViewer.aspx?B=7374683&S=8&N=33&R=0#/SearchNRetrieve/NAAMedia/ShowImage.aspx?B=7374683&T=P&S=1

12.  ibid

13.  ibid

14.  FamilySearch.org, “Vermont, St. Albans Canadian Border Crossings, 1895-1954”, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-99D9-H99Y-Q?view=index&personArk=%2Fark%3A%2F61903%2F1%3A1%3AQK3T-P1V4&action=view

15. K. Stevenson, “LAMBERT Hugh Robert.Docx” (Google Docs), https://docs.google.com/document/d/1izyGWaYTdQGmi7jaZuqUbMC6iuKXk_nt/edit

16.  National Library of Australia, “COUNCIL FEARS HOUSE-BOATS MAY POLLUTE HARBOR - The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW : 1931 - 1954) - 10 Nov 1946”, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article248363088

17.  ibid

18.  K. Stevenson, op. cit.

19.  ibid

Bibliography
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