Jack Lambert (association footballer)

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Jack Lambert (May 2, 1902 – 1940) was an English footballer.

A large and robust centre forward from Greasborough, Yorkshire, Lambert started his career playing for Rotherham County and then Leeds United, but only came to prominence after becoming a regular goalscorer for Doncaster Rovers. Playing in Yorkshire, he had attracted the attention of Herbert Chapman when the latter was manager of Huddersfield Town; when Chapman became Arsenal manager, needing a quality centre-forward, he signed Lambert for £2,000 in June 1926.

Lambert initially struggled at Arsenal, scoring only once in his first season, and was forced to play understudy to Jimmy Brain for several years. However, he got his breakthrough in the 1929-30 season; with the aid of playmaker Alex James, Lambert scored 18 times in only 20 appearances, including Arsenal's first goal in their 1930 FA Cup final victory over Huddersfield (the club's first major trophy). The following season Lambert was even better, scoring 38 goals in the League alone, a club record at the time (which was later broken by Ted Drake) that included a remarkable seven hat-tricks; that season Arsenal won the First Division.

Lambert continued to play for Arsenal over the next few years, scoring regularly (including five goals in a 9-2 defeat of Sheffield United, the most ever scored by an Arsenal player in a single home match), and won a second First Division title in 1933. However, Lambert's age and the signing of Jimmy Dunne meant he was sold in October 1933 to Fulham. In all he scored 109 goals in 161 games for the Gunners, a quite high ratio, but it wasn't enough for him ever to be selected for England.

Lambert played for two seasons for Fulham before retiring from playing in 1935. The following year he returned to Arsenal as a coach for the club's reserve side. Tragically, he was killed at the age of 38, in a car accident in Enfield, north London, in December 1940.