William Blake Lambert
William Blake Lambert (1816-1874)
1866 William Blake Lambert, Berwick-on-Tweed, Late Chief of the Imperial Russian Navy, St. Petersburg.[1]
1874 February 18th. Died.[2]
1875 Obituary [3]
William Blake Lambert was born at Berwick-upon-Tweed in 1816, and in 1836 went to London, and commenced his studies as an engineer at the establishment of Messrs. Maudslay Sons and Field.
He subsequently became Chief Engineer and Managing Director of the General Screw Steam Shipping Co, the first company that undertook to carry on a regular service of steamers to India and Australia via the Cape of Good Hope; and under his management their steamships acquired a high reputation.
He quitted the service of the company in 1856, and received from the Government an appointment as Engineer at Portsmouth Dockyard.
In 1859 he received from the Russian Government the appointment of Chief Engineer to their fleet, which he held for seven years, returning to England in 1866.
He died while on a visit to St. Petersburg, on 18th February 1874, aged 58 years. He became a Member of the Institution in 1866.
1875 Obituary [4]
MR. WILLIAM BLAKE LAMBERT, son of Mr. Peter Lambert, was born at Berwick-upon-Tweed on the 16th of June, 1816, and was educated at the Grammar School in that town, and at the University of Aberdeen.
He removed to London in 1836, and entered the employment of Messrs. Maudslay, Field, and Co., with whom he remained till the year 1848, when, on account of the part he took in converting the Government paddle-wheel steamers into screw-propellers, he was invited to enter the Government service, and was posted to Portsmouth dockyard as Assistant Chief Engineer.
He resigned in 1853, to become Manager of the General Screw Navigation Company at Southampton, and subsequently superintended the winding-up of that company’s affairs.
In the year 1859 he was asked by the Russian Government to enter their service, and he went to St. Petersburg, where he was immediately appointed Engineer-in-Chief to the Russian fleet, which appointment he held till the year 1866, when he returned to England.
Mr. Lambert died, after a few days’ illness, on the 18th of February, 1874, at St. Petersburg, whither he had gone for a few weeks on private business.
He was elected an Associate of the Institution of Civil Engineers on the 6th of March, 1849, and was transferred to the class of Member on the 16th of February, 1864.