Richard Cornthwaite Lambert

Richard Cornthwaite Lambert (5 May 1868 – 5 November 1939) was a British barrister and Liberal Party politician.

Early life The son of the Rev. Richard Umfraville Lambert, vicar of Christ Church, Bradford on Avon, Somerset and his wife Agnes née Stanton, he was born at Wells, County Carlow. He was educated at Shrewsbury School, and matriculated in 1866 at Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating B.A. with honours in history in 1889, M.A. in 1926.

He travelled widely in Europe and the Middle East before being called to the bar at the Inner Temple in 1892. In 1893 he married Lilian Burman of Four Oaks, Warwickshire, with whom he had 3 children.

In 1907 he attempted to win a London County Council seat at West Islington for the Liberal-backed Progressive Party but was unsuccessful. However, in March 1910 he was elected to the London County Council at the second attempt;

He was elected to the House of Commons as Member of Parliament (MP) for Cricklade at the general election in December 1910,

In 1913 he stood down from the London County Council. He was a pacifist. During the Great War he opposed the introduction of conscription into the armed services. He joined the Union of Democratic Control, a group of Liberal and Labour MPs who opposed military influence in government. In 1917 he wrote and had published 'The Parliamentary History of Conscription in Great Britain'. In 1918 he joined the Labour Party. The Cricklade constituency was abolished at the 1918 general election, and Lambert did not stand for Parliament again.

In 1922 he became librarian at the Athenaeum Club, London, holding the post until 1935.