Dreweatts London
Lot 72
Rolex, a British Military Issue nickel open face pocket watch, circa 1939, no. A11342 G.S. MK. II, the three piece screw case with black dial, blued steel skeleton luminous hands and subsidiary seconds dial, 15 jewel Rolex movement, bimetallic split balance, overcoil balance spring, no. 832, the case 52mm diameter, also stamped with the War dept. arrow; and a British Expeditionary Force Officer’s Identity Card. James Morison Shaw Lambie was born in Wallsend on 25th September 1908. He was the only son of Robert Dickie Lambie and Anne Dale Lambie, and had for sisters. He was educated at Newcastle Preparatory School then Durham School, where he played in the 1st rugby 15, and rowed in the 1st eight. On leaving school he joined the family business, R. D. Lambie, of Third St, Wallsend, which manufactured ships lifeboats and other commercial craft. In 1936 he married Helen Thomson Ogilvie and had two sons. In the years before the war he captained Wallsend RFC and held a commission in the Territorial Army (Royal Engineers). Although held to be in a ‘reserved occupation’ he went off to France as a Lieutenant in the RE with the British Expeditionary Force. His unit initially layed down temporary landing strips for fighter aircraft, but later, in 1940, demolished bridges in order to hinder the German advance on Dunkirk and so allow as many British troops as possible to escape. Eventually he left Dunkirk on perhaps the last trawler to leave before the enemy arrived. On arriving home, he found that his father’s health was failing and it was decided that he was needed to run the business (supplying ships’ lifeboats to the many shipyards throughout the UK). With the aid of the local MP and the Admiralty his reserved occupation status was upheld and he spent the remainder of the war running the company and played an increasing part in the local Home Guard, being promoted to Major. In the early years after the war, Lambie (Wallsend) Ltd thrived under his leadership, serving the UK shipbuilding industry and exporting around the world. He developed the company to use glass fibre technology in the production of lifeboats and other commercial craft, but with the dimunition of the UK and other European shipbuilding industries, the company was sold in 1972. He died in March 1978.
