John
Lambert
Male
England
1849-12-03
Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England
1935-01-06
Harpenden, Hertfordshire, England
John Lambert was born on 3 December 1849 in Nottingham. He was the second of the eight children – four sons and four daughters – of another John Lambert (1818-71), a lace dyer and dresser, and Zillah Lambert (née Clarke; 1831-84), both of whom were also from Nottinghamshire.
John Lambert, senior, was a descendant of the Richard Lambert who originally owned a factory in Lowdham, a village located close to Nottingham. Richard’s three sons eventually took over the factory, which expanded to make fancy hosiery and lace. A new factory was subsequently built on Talbot Street in Nottingham. In the Census of England and Wales, taken in April 1861, Richard Lambert is listed as a “lace dyer and dresser employing 20 men, 71 women, 20 boys and 101 girls”.
In February 1864, the 14-year-old John Lambert, junior, entered Rugby School, a public school located in the market town of Rugby in Warwickshire. He did not stay there long, leaving in 1866, probably to join the family firm, which was booming in the mid-nineteenth century.
John Lambert married Fannie Williams (1852-1937) in July 1872 in Nottingham. She was the daughter of Henry Williams, a lace manufacturer originally from the town of Saint Austell in Cornwall, and Harriet Williams (née Dean), who was from Hull in Yorkshire. John and Fannie Williams had four children together, two sons and two daughters: Fannie Mabel (1874-1963), Harriet Constance (1875-1955), John Henry (b. 1876) and Dudley Davis (1880-1955).
John Lambert enjoyed competing at several sports, including football, golf and cycling. In July 1877, he was also one of the 22 men who took part in the first Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships tournament, which was held at the All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club on Worple Road, Wimbledon. He won one match to reach the second round, where he lost the first two sets to Lestocq R. Erskine before retiring.
There is little evidence that Lambert ever took part in any other lawn tennis tournaments. However, a J. Lambert did reach the quarter-finals of one of the men’s singles events at the inaugural tournament held at the Edgbaston Archery and Lawn Tennis Club in Birmingham in July 1881.
John Lambert was also an amateur photographer and liked to capture views of his hometown. He also liked to photograph members of his family (including himself), whether at home or out and about. Many of these photographs still exist today and provide an interesting insight into the Nottingham of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as well as into the life of the wealthy Lambert family.
The Lamberts were also philanthropists. In the mid-1860s, the family invested £15,000 of their own money, an enormous sum in those days, in the building of the Theatre Royal in Nottingham. The theatre was designed by Charles J. Phipps, the renowned Victorian architect whose other creations included the Savoy Theatre, the Lyric Theatre and Her Majesty’s Theatre, all in London. The Theatre Royal in Nottingham was completed in 1865.
John and Fannie Lambert lived for many years in Ellesmere House on Clarendon street in Nottingham. When the Census of England and Wales was taken in April 1911, they were present there along with two female servants. In July 1932, they celebrated their sixtieth (diamond) wedding anniversary.
John Lambert died on 6 January 1935 in the town of Harpenden in Hertfordshire at the age of 85. Fannie Lambert died in the same town two years later, on 10 February 1937, at the age of 86. Both of the funerals and burials took place in Nottingham.
1877 - 1886
0
7
4
Round 1
John Lambert 1 *
R.H. Prestwich
3-6
8-6
6-0
Round 2
Thomas Dickson 1 *
John Lambert
6-0
6-1
Round 1
John Lambert 1 *
F.A. Lindner
?
Round 2
John Lambert 1 *
Evelyn Percy Gem
?
Quarterfinals
George Reston Brewerton 1 *
John Lambert
?
Round 1
John Lambert 1 *
Henry Cecil Soden
6-1
6-5
6-5
Round 2
Lestocq Robert Erskine 1 *
John Lambert
6-2
6-1
ret.