Captain Edward Lambton Pembrokeshire Yeomanry died on active service in Egypt on 28 March 1916 of pneumonia.
Lambton was the son Lieutenant Colonel Francis William Lambton Scots Guards of Brownslad, Pembrokeshire and Lady Alexandrina Elizabeth, the eldest daughter of John Frederick Campbell, second Earl of Cawdor.
He was the fifth of seven brothers who were in the Orange, which he entered in 1890, and left as a Prefect in 1895. The Lambton and Heyland boys between them formed a core of the Orange for two decades that saw the house become a stalwart building block of College.
After Wellington Heyland went to the Royal Indian Engineering College, or Cooper’s Hill, and gained an Associate’s Diploma. He was employed in the Irrigation Department of the Public Works in Egypt, and at the outbreak of the War was director of Irrigation at Assiut.
He had joined the Pembroke Yeomanry and was permitted to do his drills with the Cavalry at Abassieh and annual training in England while on leave.
For his services in the Public Works he was awarded the Order of the Osmanieh, which he was permitted to wear by King Edward. Two of his brothers were killed in the South African War.
The book “Welsh Yeomanry at War: A History of the 24th Pembroke and Glamorgan Yeomanry” by Steven John recalls the situation of his Regiment:
“On 20 March 1916 the South Wales Mounted Brigade became part of the 4th Dismounted Brigade and was attached to the banks of the Nile, it moved to the Wadi El Natrun, west of the Nile Delta, and was tasked with guarding the coastal strip, the gateway to Alexandria and to the Nile Delta, an area known as the Baharia front. The role of these newly arrived troops was a simple peace keeping one for the time being, and as garrison troops on the Suez Canal Defences.
The loss of the first officer of the Pembroke Yeomanry on active service occurred on 28 March 1916, when Captain Edward Lambton, a member of a well known Pembrokeshire family, died in hospital in Cairo.”
Lambton was a keen mason. He was initiated into Grecia Lodge No 1105 aged 22 in 1899, the same lodge as fellow OW Crew Coles.
He later joined Castlemartin Lodge No 1748 in 1901, was a Founder of Delta Lodge No 3060 at its consecration on 31 December 1904, joined Anglo Colonial Lodge No 3175 in 1907 and Star in the East Lodge No 1355 in 1908. He was a Past District Grand Warden.
