Contributed by Ron Inglis, October 2021
Born in Ballarat, Victoria, builder and contractor Robert Lamb lived with his wife Rachael and children, Edgar and Lilian, at 56 Station Road, Auburn. He was a member of the Auburn Presbyterian Church, a member of the Auburn Rifle Club and was one of seven Auburn Memorial men who were members of the Liberty Plains Lodge of the United Ancient Order of Druids.
Robert Lamb, ’34 10/12’, enlisted at Casula on 14 February 1916 and embarked on the Wiltshire on 22 August 1916, with fellow Auburn Memorial men Lewis Anderson, John Arnot, Samuel Grindrod, and Arthur Sheppard. All these men had been in training camps in Australia for an unusually long period of at least five months.
Arriving in Plymouth, England, on 13 October 1916, Private Lamb crossed to France and was taken on strength of the 13th Battalion on 19 December 1916, right in the bitterly cold northern winter, when there was little action along the front.
Lamb was one of three Auburn Memorial men killed in the First Battle of Bullecourt, April 1917. He was first reported missing. The family hoped he was one of the 1,137 Australians taken prisoner in the First Battle of Bullecourt, but his name was not among those supplied by the Germans through the Red Cross. A Court of Inquiry held in October 1917 determined that he was killed in action on 11 April 1917. His body was never found. His name is inscribed on the Australian National Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux in France.
Robert Lamb is honoured on the following memorials in Australia:
- Auburn War Memorial
- Municipality of Auburn 1914-1919 Honour Roll
- Auburn Presbyterian Church First World War Honour Roll
- Auburn Presbyterian Church First World War Memorial Window
- Roll of Honour Australian War Memorial Canberra
His decorations:
- British War Medal 1914-20
- Victory Medal
