George Lambert (Royal Navy officer)

Admiral Sir George Robert Lambert GCB (8 September 1795 – 5 June 1869) was a Royal Navy officer who went on to be Commander-in-Chief, The Nore.

Admiral Sir George Lambert GCB
Born	8 September 1795[1]
Died	5 June 1869(1869-06-05) (aged 73)
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Branch	Royal Navy
Years of service	1809–1864
Rank	Admiral
Commands	HMS Alligator HMS Endymion HMS Imaum HMS Fox Nore Command
Battles / wars	Second Anglo-Burmese War
Awards	Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath

Naval career

Lambert was the son of Captain Robert Alexander Lambert RN,^[2] himself the second son of Sir John Lambert, 2nd Baronet. His elder brother was General Sir John Lambert, GCB and his younger brother was Captain Henry Lambert.^[3]

Lambert joined the Royal Navy in 1809.^[4] Promoted to captain in 1825, he commanded HMS Alligator, HMS Endymion, HMS Imaum and then HMS Fox.^[4] In 1852, in HMS Fox, he was dispatched to Burma to deal with some infringements of the Treaty of Yandabo. Lambert, described by Lord Dalhousie, Governor-General of India, in a private letter as the "combustible commodore",^[5] eventually provoked a naval confrontation in extremely questionable circumstances by blockading the port of Rangoon and thus started the Second Anglo-Burmese War which ended in the British annexing the province of Pegu and renaming it Lower Burma.^[6]

He was appointed Commander-in-Chief, The Nore in 1863 and retired in 1864.^[4]

See also

• Rear-Admiral Charles Austen whose death while in command of the Royal Naval forces in Burma led to the appointment of Lambert to the vacant command.
• O'Byrne, William Richard (1849). "Lambert, George Robert" . A Naval Biographical Dictionary . John Murray – via Wikisource.