Lambert retained command of the 32nd Division for a time after the war before reverting to brigade command. He was posted to Ireland just before the Irish War of Independence to command the 13th Infantry Brigade. On 20 June 1921 Lambert's car was ambushed by the Irish Republican Army, travelling from a tennis match with a fellow officer and their wives. The party escaped but Lambert was wounded in the neck and died later that night.
Early life and career
Thomas Stanton Lambert was brought up in Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire.[1][2] He was the son of the Reverend R. U. Lambert and attended Charterhouse School in Surrey until 1889.[3][4] Lambert attended the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the East Lancashire Regiment on 17 June 1891.[5] Lambert was promoted to lieutenant on 18 October 1892 and to captain on 24 May 1900.[6][7] Lambert was married to Geraldine Rachel Lambert.[4] They had at least two sons: Edward Thomas Lambert, born on 19 June 1901 and William Harold Lambert, born 29 May 1905; both sons also attended Charterhouse.[3] Lambert made a donation to the Lord Mayor of London's fund for the relief of the Indian famine of 1899–1900.[8]
King George V with Major-General Eric Girdwood, GOC 74th (Yeomanry) Division, and Major-General T. S. Lambert, GOC 32nd Division, during his visit to the Second Army, possibly La Brearde, 6 August 1918. General Sir Herbert Plumer, GOC-in-Chief Second Army, can be seen in the background.
Lambert was again appointed deputy assistant adjutant general on 9 April 1915, serving in that post until 14 June.[18][19] He then returned to his regiment to command its second battalion.[20] Between 24 June and 16 July 1915 Lambert held temporary command of the 24th Brigade and was granted the temporary rank of lieutenant-colonel.[21][22] On 7 November 1915 Lambert was appointed an assistant adjutant general, serving in that role until 1 January 1916.[23][24]
Lambert had formally left the East Lancashire Regiment in January 1919, as he had been confirmed in his appointment to command the 32nd Division.[31] On 15 March he relinquished command of the division and became commander of a brigade, with the temporary rank of brigadier-general.[32] He relinquished command of the brigade on 25 September 1919, though he retained the temporary rank of brigadier-general.[33] He was promoted to the substantive rank of colonel on 13 October 1919 and the same month was granted command of the 13th Infantry Brigade which was stationed in Athlone, Ireland as part of the 5th Infantry Division.[34][2] Lambert's temporary rank became that of colonel-commandant on 1 January 1921 as the army transitioned away from brigadier-generals.[35]
In early 1921, the First Dáil's paramilitary wing, the Irish Republican Army (IRA), learned that Col.-Com. Lambert often travelled by motorcar to play tennis with other British Army officers at Midges House, near Coosan. Meanwhile, IRA Director of Intelligence and legendary guerilla warfare strategist Michael Collins had been determined to secure the release of Irish Volunteers General Seán Mac Eoin ever since the latter been captured by the British in March 1921. Collins knew that, if a British officer of the same rank were also captured, General Mac Eoin could be released as part of a prisoner exchange. For this reason, Lambert was selected for abduction and orders were accordingly dispatched to the IRA flying column based in Tubberclare, which was part of the Athlone Brigade.[36][2]
Lambert's car was ambushed on the way back from a tennis match on 20 June 1921. There were five occupants: Lambert, Colonel Challoner and Kate Elsie Arthur, Challoner's niece in the back seats and Mrs. Lambert, who was driving, and Challoner's wife in the front seats.[1][36][2] A party of 14 IRA men, commanded by Captain John J. Elliott, lay in wait near Moydrum with rifles, pistols and shotguns; Lambert's car approached around 7.30pm.[36][37] Mrs. Lambert spotted the ambush and accelerated to break through it as no road block had been put in place.[38] A warning shot was fired over the motorcar and, when it was ignored, it was followed by two more shots directed at the car's occupants. Col.-Com. Lambert was hit in the neck and Mrs Challoner slightly wounded, but the party escaped to safety.[2] Lambert died at 9pm that night at the Church of Ireland Military Hospital in Athlone, he was 50 years old[2] and was buried at the Brookwood Military Cemetery in Surrey, his grave is in the care of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.[2][4]
On 21 June 1921, a group of Black and Tans burned down many homes in Knockcroghery (see Burning of Knockcroghery), in reprisal for the attack on Colonel Commandant Lambert the day before.[39]
After the ambush the British carried out an intensive search for the responsible IRA men. The Black and Tans knew that most IRA members in the area were farmers and so focussed on farmhouses. In the early hours of 2 July a group of masked men in "trench coats and tweed caps" burnt five farmhouses in Coosan district and one at Mount Temple in retaliation for the assassination of Col.-Com. Lambert. The following day the IRA retaliated by burning down Moydrum Castle, the home of Anglo-Irish landlord Albert Handcock, 5th Baron Castlemaine.[38]
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