Chairman Walter Lamb Biography

Walter Lamb                    (1825 – 1906)

Chairman Agricultural Society of New South Wales 1881 - 1882

 Walter Lamb came from London to Sydney as a child with his parents in 1829. He started as a clerk in his father’s business but soon showed entrepreneurial promise, becoming an original shareholder and director of the Colonial Sugar Refinery Co by 1855. His business interests multiplied to include a pastoral company with vast landholdings in Queensland and NSW, and a fruit cannery at Rooty Hill valued at £10,000. He also bred Durham cattle.

Lamb took leadership of the Society when he became chairman of the ‘Council of Five’, a temporary management board set up at his suggestion to take control of the financial emergency which arose after the 1881 Show. Lamb’s energy, agricultural ties and business experience, which included directorships with several banks and insurance companies, made him the natural choice to head the board.

While chairman, Lamb was regularly on site to supervise the building works at the new Moore Park grounds and generously donated money and underwrote sums to guarantee the recovery of the organisation.

Ironically, though Lamb helped place the Society on a firm footing, a reversal in his personal fortunes saw him bankrupted in 1893. When he died his estate was valued at £10.

A full list of Presidents can be found here.