Bill Lamb

The Hon. William Henry Lamb (5 January 1889 – 8 January 1964) was an Australian politician. He was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1938 until 1962 and, variously, a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and the Lang Labor Party. He was the Speaker of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly between 1947 and 1959.

Early life

Lamb was born in Nyngan, New South Wales. He was the son of a coachbuilder, was educated to elementary level at state schools. From the age of 12 he worked as a grocer's boy and then as a coalminer. At age 19 he became a teacher in NSW rural schools and studied accountancy in his spare time. He was an office manager after 1927. A protégé of Jack Lang, Lamb was an alderman on Auburn Council between 1932 and 1939 and was the mayor in 1935.

State Parliament

At the 1938 state election, Lamb was elected to the New South Wales Parliament as the Labor member for the new seat of Granville. He defeated the sitting United Australia Party member, Claude Fleck. Lamb retained the seat for the next 7 elections but lost Labor Party pre-selection prior to the 1962 state election and retired. He was a supporter of Lang's Australian Labor Party (Non-Communist) during the party split of 1941 but did not support the later manifestations of Lang Labor.

Speaker

Lamb succeeded Daniel Clyne as the Speaker of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly after the 1947 election and retained the position for 12 years. The parliamentary web site states that he maintained firm control over the assembly and was frequently criticized by the opposition for inflexibility, unnecessary interjections from the chair and bias towards the government.

References

• "The Hon. William Henry Lamb (1889 - 1964)". Former members of the New South Wales Parliament, 1856-2006. New South Wales Parliament. Retrieved 2009-01-11.