Studio portrait of VX22347 Lieutenant (Lt) George Hamilton Lamb, known as Hamilton (Hammy) Lamb, ...

Studio portrait of VX22347 Lieutenant (Lt) George Hamilton Lamb, known as Hamilton (Hammy) Lamb, 2/2 Pioneer Battalion and the Citizens Military Force (CMF), originally from Bendigo, Vic. Lt Hamilton died of illness on the Burma Railway, on 7 December 1943 and is buried in Thanbyuzayat War Cemetery, Thailand. Lt Lamb was born together with his twin sister, Florence Rodan, on the first day of the new century, 1 January 1900. Prior to the Second World War, Lt Lamb was a school teacher in Victoria, as were both his parents. He was educated at Ed Stawell High School and graduated from Melbourne University in 1921 with a BA and LLB (Arts and Law degrees). He was Headmaster of Geelong Grammar Prep School from 1923 – 1927; lecturer in English and Economics at Gordon Institute, Geelong 1927-31; principal of Kyneton College 1931-33. Lt Lamb became MLA for Lowan (Horsham, Victoria) from 2 March 1935 until the date of his death. He remained a member of parliament and was returned unopposed while a prisoner of war (POW) in Thailand. His memory is perpetuated by opening in 1959 of the Hamilton Lamb Hall, in Horsham,Vic. Lt Lamb served in the Palestine, and Syria before moving into the Dutch East Indies in 1941 and became a POW in Java in 1942. Of the 117 Australian politicians who fought for their country during the Second World War, Lt Lamb was the only one to die at war. An extract from The Victorian Parliamentary Debates dated 5 September 1944, described Lt Lamb as one of the most radical and progressive men in the house at that time. He was also known widely as an educationalist who sought valuable reforms to the Education Department. At the time of his enlistment, Lt Lamb was a widower, his wife having died shortly before he embarked, leaving three small children to be brought up by his twin sister together with her three children. On 8 December 2003, 60th Anniversary of his death notification, a memorial to Lt Lamb, a restored Federation garden seat with a plaque was unveiled in the Victorian Parliamentary Gardens to commemorate the parliamentary and military service of Lt Lamb.

• Studio portrait of VX22347 Lieutenant (Lt) George Hamilton Lamb, known as Hamilton (Hammy) Lamb, ...