Bert Lamb

Albert (Bert) Edward Lamb was born the youngest of twelve children in Wood Green, London on 14th May 1902. He grew up just a stones throw away from the Alexandra Palace rink and would undoubtedly have been a frequent visitor in his youth.

Lamb’s father, Jim, had his own business as a painter and decorator but rather than following in his father’s footsteps, Lamb found work as a fireman on the railways. It was an arduous job and one that kept him fit.

His love of roller skating led him to join the local Alexandra Palace club in the early 1920’s and he took part in regular club events in those early years, even winning the odd handicap. By his own admission, however, Lamb sat back on his laurels and whilst he enjoyed racing it was his organisational skills that set him apart from the others.

In 1929 Lamb was appointed as the Honorary Secretary and Treasurer of the club as well as a regular coach and team selector. Three years later, in 1932, Lamb married his fiancé, Dorothy Parry. As a wedding present to himself Lamb decided to finally join the National Skating Association and became a member of the Roller Speed Committee, then under the Chairmanship of former Alexandra Palace speed skater and Palace Trustee, Sid Cole.

By 1935 Lamb’s administration skills were getting appreciated by a wider audience and he was appointed to the Roller Speed Committee’s ‘Handicapping Board’. In fact, such was his prominence that when Great Britain sent their national team to Stuttgart, Germany and a European Championships for the very first time in 1936, it was Lamb who the Committee appointed as Team Manager/Coach. Great Britain won five of the seven events and took all the remaining medals in the other two events. Under the tutorship of Lamb, Britain had arrived on the international scene with a bang. On his return home the Roller Speed Committee presented him with a silver cigarette case in recognition of his efforts and support of the national team.

In April 1938 Britain hosted the first ever world track championships at Wembley, London. Lamb was again asked to be manager/coach and together the team would take away four gold medals from six events, with a silver and a bronze medal in the other two events. He also kept his own hand in at speed skating and passed his NSA bronze speed test at the Lido rink in Doncaster shortly afterwards.

In the autumn of 1939, everything stopped. War was suddenly raging across Europe and roller skating was furthest from anyone’s mind. What Lamb did for the war effort isn’t known but we do know that by the time the war had ended Dorothy and Bert Lamb had separated. In a tangled web, Dorothy would become the partner of Sid Cole who had lost his son, Brandon, to the war in 1944. In the spring of 1945, just as victory was being declared, Lamb would marry another divorcee, Eleanor (Peggy) Hoskins.

When skating resumed in earnest in 1947 Lamb took his place back on the Roller Speed Committee, this time chaired by Major Kenneth Beaumont CBE DSO. George Lord had been the Committee Secretary since 1929 and Lamb was now appointed as his assistant.

In 1949 Lamb was also appointed as one of four roller speed representatives to the NSA Council which Beaumont also presided over.

In 1951 Beaumont relinquished his role as Chairman of the Roller Speed Committee and a new Chairman had to be found. The Committee didn’t have far to look. Now, with almost twenty years of service on the Roller Speed Committee, Bert Lamb was appointed Chairman. His appointment resulted in him standing down as Honorary Secretary and Treasurer of the Alexandra Palace club, a position he had held for some twenty-two years.

In 1953, Lamb and George Lord joined forces as the management for the British team that took part in the 1953 World Championships in Venice-Lido, Italy. The event was notable for being the very first time a ladies world championship had been held. Lamb and Lord were also sole selectors and had put the men and women through their paces on a road circuit around Moorgate and London Wall. The circuit weaved its way around bomb damaged and derelict buildings that had been used by the Roller Speed Committee since 1948 for trials and team selection after the war. It was used to good effect as the resulting championships would see medals for Denis Hill, a young Les Woodley and a remarkable 4th place in the women’s 500 metres and 10000 metres for Patricia Kirkham.

The following year Lamb was again Team Manager when Joan Rawlings became the first non-Italian skater to win a world championship medal of any colour, a bronze in the 10000 metres at Bari, Italy. The same year he was also welcomed to the world governing body, Federation International de Roller Skating (FIRS), as a British representative and international judge. Lamb was by now a globally recognised and respected ambassador for British speed skating.

With no championships in 1955 Lamb again took the reins at the world championships in Barcelona in 1956 and again the event saw medals for Britain.

Although there were world championships in Palermo, Italy in 1957, the Roller Speed Committee elected to not send a team stating the following reasons in their annual report:

".....the apparent absence of a suitable outdoor surface in London or the provinces on which skaters could undertake training prior to selection in the team, the short notice received of the events taking place and the considerable expense that would have to be borne in travel to the venue".

In 1958 Don Brown took over as Team Manager for the world championships in Finale Ligure, Italy. It would be his one and only outing as Team Manager and with no world championships in 1959 it seemed that normal service had resumed when Lamb once again took over at the 1960 world championships in Wetteren, Belgium. Little did he know at the time, however, that this would be his final time at the helm.

As the championships progressed it soon became evident that the judging of the event was inept at best, or worse, corrupt. To someone like Lamb, with many years administering the sport he was a stickler for detail and doing things by the book. The errors, complacency and unprofessionalism of the judging was too much to bear for Lamb.

The two day schedule started with the declassification of Leo Eason from first place to last place in the 5000 metres for skating inside the white line of the track. Whilst the decision was not argued, it perplexed many why the Italian woman, Alberta Vianello, only received a one place declassification for the same infringement. Despite Eason’s relegation the final placings of the other skaters were also plainly wrong and resulted in a lot of arguing with the judges from other nations. Later races were also plagued with lap board errors and public displays of arguing between judges, not least of all the Italian FIRS representative, Enrico Quaranta.

The shambles of the first day was repeated on the second day. In the second round of the ladies 500 metres knockout competition, Britain’s Barbara Woodley drew Helga Shoeps (Germany) and beat her to the line, or so she thought. The race was only over two laps but the bell had not been rung to signify the last lap. As the pair crossed the finish line they were both then told to carry on for another lap by the judges. Both skaters looked perplexed and in the ensuing confusion Schoeps then crossed the line ahead of Woodley. Lamb immediately protested and after some heated discussion the judges partly relented and offered that the race should be rerun. Woodley flatly refused. Her argument was that regardless of the bell she had completed the required distance of 500 metres ahead of Schoeps and she should be advanced without a rerun, but her reasoning was ignored. It was the final straw for Lamb. After consulting with his fellow Roller Speed Committee member, Henry Crystall, who incidentally was on his first assignment as an international judge (and finishing judge), Lamb withdrew the entire team from the rest of the championships.

This drastic course of action was met initially with approval by many, but the skaters who it directly affected were not all in agreement with this decision. The skaters agreed that the situation was indeed farcical but all their hard work and efforts were now going to waste and any dreams of becoming world champion that weekend had been snatched away. Reluctantly, but without argument, the British skaters watched from the sidelines for the rest of the championships. But there was still more to come from this whole sorry saga.

As a result of their actions FIRS handed out bans to both Lamb and Crystall. Crystall was well known for his pompous and elitist attitude when it came to skating and many believed that his influence over Lamb swayed him to withdraw the team. Whether that is true or not is not certain, but the ramifications of doing so reached far and wide. When the Roller Speed Committee published their end of year report for the 1960 season this is what they said on the matter:

"The occasion was a most unsatisfactory one for the British party of competitors and Officials, and in several instances there were deficiencies in organisation and which, when brought to notice, were not rectified.........Added to the many incidences of mismanagement and wrong decisions to which attention was drawn, Mr.Lamb felt obliged to withdraw the British team from its engagement, action which had the approval of the British skaters and several other experienced speed skaters from this country".

We know from later discussions with team members of that time that the statement “approval of the British skaters” is not entirely accurate.

In 1961 there were two world championships for the first time since 1938. One on the road (Gujan-Mestras, France) and one on the track (Voltrega, Spain). Still smarting from the events of 1960, and most likely from the bans dished out to Lamb and Crystall, the Roller Speed Committee refused to send a British team to either. This is how they ‘justified’ that decision in their 1961 annual report:

"Two International events in Roller Speed Skating....took place during the past season for which no British skaters were entered in sustantiation of the Roller Speed Committee's view strongly held, of the deficiencies in the organisation of the World Championships held on road in Belgium in 1960, and as referred to in the previous year's Report".

For the British skaters of the time who were at the top of their game and in with a shout of victory, this was just another kick in the teeth. It was seen as typical of the British establishment attitude of the time who would rather cut off their nose to spite their face. Whilst Leo Eason and Danny Kelly would go on and win world titles in 1963, the likes of Les Woodley, Ricky May, Chloe Ronaldson and Pat Eason were left ruing what might have been. The rest of the world simply ignored the British tantrum, shrugged their shoulders and got on with what needed to be done.

Sadly, for Lamb, despite his unquestionable unwavering dedication to the sport over three decades it is probably this one incident that he will be remembered for the most. On Thursday 18th January 1962 Albert Lamb passed away, suddenly and unexpectedly, at his home in Wood Green. In fact, he had been at work the previous evening. He was not yet 60.

History may well treat Bert Lamb more harshly than he deserves. It’s an almost certainty that he was spurred on by Henry Crystall, a man well known for being full of self-importance, to make a snap decision based solely on principle. Whilst those principles are not in question, his decision to withdraw the entire British team was later considered by many to be ill thought out with little regard for the athletes themselves.

Putting all that aside, we should not overlook that here we have a man who gave the sport so much. Skating in many of its forms was a big part of his life. He had a keen interest in roller hockey and had previously also sat on the committees for ice speed and roller figure and dance. At the time of his death he had been a representative of the NSA Council for twelve years. He was and still is the longest serving Chairman of the post war Roller Speed Committee (now FISS) and arguably the most successful British national team manager (four world titles and five European titles) to have taken charge.

Albert Lamb gave so much of his life to a sport he loved dearly and was honoured by the Alexandra Palace club with a trophy, the Albert Lamb Memorial Trophy, for junior skaters. Its inaugural race would be held just two days before what would have been Lamb’s 60th birthday, 12th May 1962. Sadly, the trophy is no longer raced for, the last time being in 1987 and like many of the classics has yet to resurface.

With those in the sport who knew Albert Lamb now few and far between, his name and legacies for roller speed skating are both rapidly fading and, much like ‘his’ trophy are in danger of disappearing altogether. Hopefully, no longer.