{{Short description|British WWII veteran (born 1920)}} {{About|a British World War II veteran|the Christian theological concept|Lamb of God|other uses|Lamb of God (disambiguation)}} {{Use British English|date=November 2022}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2022}} {{Infobox person | name = Christian Lamb | image = Christian Lamb who helped draw up maps for the D-Day.webp | image_size = | caption = | birth_name = Christian Mary Wolseley Oldham | birth_date = {{birth date and age|df=y|1920|7|19}} | birth_place = Edinburgh, Scotland | death_date = | death_place = | education = Officer Training Course at Greenwich | employer = Women's Royal Navy Service | occupation = | spouse = {{marriage|John Lamb|15 December 1943}} | partner = | children = | parents = | relatives = | signature = | website = | footnotes = }}
'''Christian Mary Wolseley Lamb''' (née '''Oldham''', born 19 July 1920) is a British World War II veteran who helped to plan the D-Day landings in Normandy.<ref name=":1" /> She is a lecturer on the history of plants and the author of five books, including her war-time memoir, ''Beyond the Sea.''<ref>{{Cite news |last=White |first=Vikki |date=23 September 2021 |title=Wren's-eye view of the Battle of the Atlantic |newspaper=Birmingham Post |url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A676460166/STND?u=wikipedia&sid=bookmark-STND&xid=0857a768 |access-date=10 November 2022 |via=Gale OneFile}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=About |url=https://www.christianlamb.co.uk/ |access-date=10 November 2022 |website=Christian Lamb}}</ref><ref name=":3"/> As of {{year}}, at the age of {{age in years|1920|7|19}}, she is one of the last surviving officers of the Wrens, the Women's Royal Naval Service, to have served throughout the war. In June 2024, she was awarded the Legion d'honneur.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Cook |first=Victoria |date=2024-06-06 |title=Wren, 103, given Legion d'honneur by France's Emmanuel Macron |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd11rn893ero |access-date=2024-06-06 |website=BBC News |language=en-GB}}</ref>
== Early life and education == Christian Mary Wolseley Oldham was born in Edinburgh Scotland on 19 July 1920.<ref>{{cite web |title=Many congratulations to Christian Lamb nee (Oldham) who celebrates her 💯. birthday today 🍾🎁 |url=https://www.facebook.com/AssociationofWrens/posts/many-congratulations-to-christian-lamb-nee-oldham-who-celebrates-her-birthday-to/1761355300669989/ |website=Association of Wrens on Facebook |access-date=6 June 2024 |date=19 July 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Christian Mary Wolseley Oldham birth certificate |url=https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/image-viewer/stat_births/stat_births-6666604_1651922?search_token=193868012566621e482b295 |website=Scotland's People |publisher=National Records of Scotland |access-date=6 June 2024}}</ref> Her father was Rear-Admiral Ronald Wolseley Oldham OBE, a veteran of the First World War.<ref name=":0" /> At the age of 18, she left school and went to France to live with a family and improve her French ahead of entering university.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> In 1939, she received a telegram from her father that war was imminent and to return home to London at once.<ref name=":0" /> Upon returning to the UK, she enrolled in first-aid classes, intending to become a nurse in the Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD).<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |last=Smith |first=Olivia |date=November 2021 |title=A TRUE HERO-WREN: At 101, Christian Lamb shares her memories and experiences of serving as a Wren on the home front during World War I |pages=68–71 |work=History of War |issue=100 |url=https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&u=wikipedia&id=GALE|A681206055&v=2.1&it=r&sid=ebsco |access-date=10 November 2022}}</ref>
== Military career == Oldham joined the Wrens, the Women's Royal Navy Service, after an interview at their headquarters next to Admiralty Arch in Trafalgar Square.<ref name=":0" /> In January 1940, she started basic training at the HMS Pembroke training facility at Campden Hill Road, Kensington.<ref name=":0" />
Oldham then apprenticed at HMS President, the headquarters of the WRNS, doing clerical work.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":5">{{Cite book |last=Nicholson |first=Virginia |title=Millions Like Us: Women's Lives in the Second World War |publisher=Penguin UK |year=2012 |isbn=9780670917785 |pages=144, 155–156, 159–163}}</ref> At the start of the Blitz, she and her colleagues were sent home before dark to their billets in North London.<ref name=":0" /> After a year at Wrens HQ, she was promoted to Leading Wren, and led a unit of twelve Wrens at the degaussing range at Coalhouse Fort, East Tilbury, where they made ships less magnetic to avoid mines.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite web |date=11 December 2019 |title=Former Wren takes trip down memory lane at The Coalhouse Fort |url=https://www.itv.com/news/london/2019-12-11/former-wren-takes-80-year-trip-down-memory-lane-at-the-coalhouse-fort-in-tilbury |access-date=10 November 2022 |website=ITV News |language=en}}</ref>
One year later, Oldham went before the Officer Selection Board, and was selected to attend the Officer Training Course at Greenwich.<ref name=":0" /> In February 1942, she was sent to Plymouth where she was the plotting officer of one of four watches, responsible for receiving information from coastal radar stations.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":5" /> After a year, she was assigned to plotting operations in Belfast, near where ships gathered to convoy across the Atlantic Ocean.<ref name=":0" />
By early 1944, she was known as Christian Lamb after her marriage and was assigned to Combined Operations HQ at Richmond Terrace, Whitehall, under the command of Rear Admiral H. E. Horan.<ref name=":0" />
Lamb helped to plan the Normandy landings from Winston Churchill's secret war rooms in London.<ref name=":3">{{Cite news |date=20 August 2021 |title=World War Two Wren, 101, releases London memoir |publisher=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-58271337 |access-date=10 November 2022}}</ref><ref name=":2" /> She heard the news about the D-Day landings on the radio on 6 June 1944.<ref name=":2" /> She left military service in 1945.<ref name=":0" /> Although she did not discuss her role in the war for roughly 50 years, Lamb has detailed her experience in her memoirs, ''Beyond the Sea'', published in 2021.<ref name=":3" />
== Personal life == While in Belfast, Oldham met Lieutenant Commander John Lamb DSC on board the Royal Navy destroyer {{HMS|Oribi|G66|6}},<ref name=":1">{{Cite news |date=10 November 2022 |title=Capturing war-time memories, before it is too late |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63504826 |access-date=10 November 2022}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite news |last=Manby |first=Christine |date=9 November 2020 |title=Get a Handel on It |work=The Independent |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/2458462270 |access-date=10 November 2022 |id={{ProQuest|2458462270}}}}</ref> when the Wrens were invited on board for drinks.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":5" /> After a 10-day courtship, they were engaged, but HMS ''Oribi'', which had been in Belfast for repairs, was soon called away to escort the ONS 5, a slow-moving convoy.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite news |date=9 May 2023 |title=102-year-old WREN recalls the vital role she played in the Battle of the Atlantic |work=The Past |url=https://the-past.com/news/102-year-old-wren-recalls-the-vital-role-she-played-in-the-battle-of-the-atlantic/ |access-date=2023-05-15}}</ref> Christian found herself plotting John's route from Belfast, and watched in trepidation as they received signals that the convoy had encountered roughly 40 U-boats waiting for them.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite news |date=10 November 2022 |title=WW2 officer Christian: 'You had no idea what was going to happen' |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-63587939 |access-date=11 November 2022}}</ref> ''Oribi'' rammed a German U-boat and sank it, later arriving safely in North America.<ref name=":0" />
Christian and John Lamb married in London on 15 December 1943.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2" /> Their daughter Felicity Anne was born in the autumn of 1944.<ref name=":6">{{Cite book |last=Lamb |first=Christian |title=Beyond the Sea: A Wren at War |publisher=Mardle Books |year=2021 |isbn=978-1-914-45102-7 |location=London |pages=212, 229, 260–262, 292}}</ref> After the war, they lived in Malta and Singapore with their children,<ref name=":2" /> before returning to England.<ref name=":6" />
Christian Lamb later developed an interest in plants, particularly camellias, as well as the history of plants and botanical gardens.<ref name=":6" /> She has lectured on the life of English botanist Sir Joseph Banks,<ref name=":6" /><ref>{{Cite web |last1=Good |first1=Jo |last2=Lamb |first2=Christian |title=School's out: the life of Sir Joseph Banks |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p09b89nj |access-date=23 November 2022 |website=BBC Sounds}}</ref> and is a fellow of the Linnean Society and member of the Dendrology Society.<ref name=":6" />
The Lambs' wedding cake in 1943 was made by Searcys, with dried fruit pooled together by friends and relatives.<ref name=":4">{{Cite news |date=24 July 2020 |title=WWII veteran has 100th birthday cake made by same company as wedding cake |work=ITV |url=https://www.itv.com/news/london/2020-07-24/wwii-veteran-has-100th-birthday-cake-made-by-same-company-as-wedding-cake |access-date=10 November 2022}}</ref><ref name=":6" /> In 2020, Searcys provided Christian Lamb with a cake for her 100th birthday, 77 years after her first cake from them.<ref name=":4" />
While attending the D-Day 80th Anniversary commemoration, President Emmanuel Macron presented her with the Legion d'honneur.<ref>{{Cite news |date=6 June 2024 |title=Macron honours World War Two Wren Christian Lamb |work=BBC |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-69089969?ns_mchannel=social&ns_source=twitter&ns_campaign=bbc_live&ns_linkname=666189754736400cb3a86c40%26Macron%20honours%20World%20War%20Two%20Wren%20Christian%20Lamb%262024-06-06T10%3A11%3A36.243Z&ns_fee=0&pinned_post_locator=urn:asset:146b0e84-cfa3-4ca8-a455-c694b2cc0412&pinned_post_asset_id=666189754736400cb3a86c40&pinned_post_type=share |access-date=6 June 2024}}</ref>
== Books by Christian Lamb == * ''From the Ends of the Earth – Passionate plant collectors remembered in a Cornish garden'' (1995)<ref>{{Cite news |date=23 March 1995 |title=Historian's search for 'lost' garden |newspaper=The West Briton and Royal Cornwall Gazette |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/112829503/historians-search-for-lost-gardens/ |access-date=10 November 2022 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> * ''I Only Joined for the Hat'': ''Redoubtable Wrens at War...Their trials, tribulations, and triumphs'' (2007)<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=I only joined for the hat : redoubtable Wrens at war : their trials, tribulations and triumphs |url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/85898479 |access-date=17 November 2022 |website=WorldCat}}</ref> * ''This Infant Adventure – Offspring of the Royal Gardens at Kew'' (2011)<ref>{{Cite news |date=20 January 2011 |title=London's Bestsellers |newspaper=Evening Standard |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/710199964/?terms=%22Christian%20Lamb%22&match=1 |access-date=10 November 2022}}</ref> * ''Cruising Along – Around the world in 80 years'' (2015)<ref>{{Cite news |last=Bhaumik |first=Gayatri |date=Summer 2015 |title=Page Turner – Travelling in Style |page=134 |work=Jetsetter |url=https://issuu.com/donpierreriosa/docs/jetsettersummer2015 |access-date=10 November 2022 |via=Issuu.com}}</ref> * ''Beyond the Sea – A Wren at War'' (2021)<ref name=":3" />
== References == {{reflist}}
== External links == * [https://www.christianlamb.co.uk/ Official website] * [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-63587939 BBC video interview with Christian Lamb] * [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cd11rn893ero Wren, 103, given Legion d'honneur by Macron (BBC News)] * [https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p09b89nj BBC audio interview on Sir Joseph Banks]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Lamb, Christian}} Category:1920 births Category:Living people Category:British women centenarians Category:Women's Royal Naval Service officers Category:British women memoirists Category:Fellows of the Linnean Society of London Category:British nature writers Category:20th-century British non-fiction writers Category:20th-century British women writers Category:21st-century British memoirists Category:21st-century British women writers Category:British recipients of the Legion of Honour