Joseph Malet Lambert

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Joseph Malet Lambert (1853-1931) played a prominent part in the history of Hull from 1881 until 1931. He was involved in great reforms in education and social affairs, proposing universal education as an economic stimulus. His Two Thousand Years of Gild Life (pub. 1891), described the development of the guild system in England, with particular reference to Hull from the 14th to 18th century.

Malet Lambert was born in Hull in 1853, the son of Joseph Lambert and his second wife, Jane Malet, of Cork. His mother died when he was young. When he was 11 years old, his father remarried to Susannah Wilson, the elder daughter of Thomas Wilson, the Hull ship-owner. He attended Pocklington Grammar School and later entered his father's ship-broking business in the High Street.

Eventually he entered Trinity College, Dublin, graduating with a first rank honors BA in Natural Science 1879. In that same year he was ordained, becoming curate at Tadcaster. In the late November of 1881 he became perpetual curate of Newland, Hull. In February 1882 he married Miss Rose Harrison, eldest daughter of Aurthur Harrison of Northgate House, Cottingham . He received an M.A. in 1883, Bachelor of Laws in 1884 and Doctor of Laws in 1885.

In the 1880s, Malet Lambert was instrumental in setting up what later became the parish of St. Augustine's, Queens Road, a district taken out of his own parish of St. John's, Newland. In the 1890s the church of St. John, Newland was increased in size.

In 1894 Malet Lambert became Rural dean of Hull. In 1900 he became Canon of York.

Malet Lambert was a member of the Hull School Board, and was chairman when it was dissolved in 1904. It was this Board which set up the Craven Street School which eventually became Malet Lambert High School. He became chairman of the Hull Higher Education Committee in 1905, a position he held until his death. He was also chairman of the Council of Hull University College from 1927 until 1931.

Fifty years after Malet Lambert's death, the historian Edward Gillett, writing in "A History of Hull", states that in the 1880s, the Rev. J.M. Lambert gave a strong lead in social reform in Hull.