{{Short description|British historian and art collector (1906–1995)}} {{About|the British historian|the German Jewish athlete|Gretel Bergmann}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2025}} '''Margaret Lambert''' (7 November 1906 – 22 January 1995) was a British historian specialising in German history. She also collected and preserved English popular art with her partner, Enid Marx.
== Early life and education == The Honourable Margaret Barbara Lambert was born and grew up in Devon. Her father was George Lambert, 1st Viscount Lambert, and Winston and Clementine Churchill were visitors to her family home.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Leith |first=Sarah |date=27 June 2024 |title=Margaret Lambert (1906-1995) |url=https://women-historians.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/2024/06/27/margaret-lambert-1906-1995/ |access-date=25 February 2025 |website=Women Historians of St Andrews |language=en-GB}}</ref>
Lambert was privately educated and then attended Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, where she studied PPE. She studied for her PhD at the London School of Economics under Charles Manning. In 1933, she spent time researching in Berlin, Saar and Paris for her thesis, which was entitled 'The Saar Territory as a Factor in Franco German Relations'.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news |last=Taylor |first=Clare |date=9 March 2018 |title=Margaret Barbara Lambert (1906-95) – "A thorough and energetic investigator" |url=https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsehistory/2018/03/09/margaret-barbara-lambert-1906-95-a-thorough-and-energetic-investigator/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241202194628/https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsehistory/2018/03/09/margaret-barbara-lambert-1906-95-a-thorough-and-energetic-investigator/ |archive-date=2 December 2024 |access-date=25 February 2025 |work=LSE History |url-status=live }}</ref> Lambert graduated in 1936.<ref name=":0" />
In 1931, Lambert met Enid Marx and they became partners.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Joseph |first=Anne |date=25 July 2018 |title=For 40 years, Londoners sat on this unconventional artist's ingenious tube seats |url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/for-40-years-londoners-sat-on-this-unconventional-artists-ingenious-tube-seats/ |access-date=25 February 2025 |work=The Times of Israel}}</ref> Marx designed a cover for the 1934 book based on Lambert's thesis.<ref name=":1" /> Marx and Lambert collaborated in collecting for a book, ''When Victoria Began to Reign: A Coronation Year Scrapbook'' (1937) and built up a collection of vernacular art.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Trant |first=Carolyn |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N5MAEQAAQBAJ&dq=margaret+lambert+historian&pg=PA25-IA11 |title=British Women Artists: From Suffrage to the Sixties |date=14 March 2024 |publisher=Thames & Hudson |isbn=978-0-500-77924-8 |language=en}}</ref>
== Career == During World War II, Lambert worked for the Institute of International Affairs and as an Intelligence Officer for the BBC Austrian Service.<ref name=":1" />
After the war, Lambert's tutor from Oxford, Mary Coate, helped her to become the assistant editor of ''Documents on British Foreign Policy, 1919–1939''.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Owens |first=Patricia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eDcWEQAAQBAJ&dq=margaret+lambert+historian&pg=PA354 |title=Erased: A History of International Thought Without Men |date=21 January 2025 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-26682-4 |language=en}}</ref> She worked with Llewellyn Woodward and Rohan Butler on multiple volumes.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Beshoff |first1=Pamela |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FCx-o4-3YN0C&dq=margaret+lambert+historian&pg=PA41 |title=Two Worlds of International Relations: Academics, Practitioners and the Trade in Ideas |last2=Hill |first2=Christopher |date=2 August 2005 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-91381-7 |language=en}}</ref>
In 1946, Lambert and Marx had ''English Popular and Traditional Art'' published as part of the "Britain in Pictures" series. At the end of 1946, Lambert and Marx were part of a Council of Industrial Design team sent to Germany. They also undertook surveys in Scandinavia. In 1947, they travelled to Italy to conduct further research.<ref name=":1" /> Lambert and Marx wrote for W.J. Turner's ''British Craftsmanship'' (1948).<ref name=":1" />
In 1949, Lambert became a Lecturer at the University of Exeter, but she left two years later to become editor-in-chief of the captured ''Documents on German Foreign Policy 1918-1945'' for the Foreign Office.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Owens |first1=Patricia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1eNMEAAAQBAJ&dq=margaret+lambert+historian&pg=PA215 |title=Women's International Thought: A New History |last2=Rietzler |first2=Katharina |date=16 December 2020 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-108-86262-2 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Lambert |first=Margaret |date=April 1959 |title=Source Materials Made Available to Historical Research as a Result of World War II |url=https://academic.oup.com/ia/article-lookup/doi/10.2307/2605297 |journal=International Affairs |language=en |volume=35 |issue=2 |pages=188–196 |doi=10.2307/2605297 |jstor=2605297 |issn=1468-2346|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Lambert was the British historian (alongside Maurice Baumont and Paul Sweet from France and the US) responsible for examining the files and deciding what should be published, and when.<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":1" /> She discussed the Marburg Files with Churchill and other government ministers, especially content relating to the Duke of Windsor.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite news |last=Breuning |first=Eleanore |date=1 February 1995 |title=Obituary: Margaret Lambert |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-margaret-lambert-1570961.html |work=The Independent}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Eckert |first=Astrid M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vRjJVlRG4qcC&dq=margaret+lambert+historian&pg=PA251 |title=The Struggle for the Files: The Western Allies and the Return of German Archives After the Second World War |date=29 February 2012 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-88018-3 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Sweet |first=Paul R. |date=1996-12-01 |title=The Windsor File |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1540-6563.1997.tb00991.x |journal=The Historian |language=en |volume=59 |issue=2 |pages=263–280 |doi=10.1111/j.1540-6563.1997.tb00991.x |issn=0018-2370|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Lambert felt obliged to resign when Churchill said not to publish the files,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kent |first=George O. |date=1994 |title=Editing Diplomatic Documents: A Review of Official US and German Documents Series |journal=American Archivist |volume=57 |issue=Summer |pages=462–481 |doi=10.17723/aarc.57.3.6n823xmm2pg07702 }}</ref> and had been advised by Bernadotte Schmitt to publish,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Salmon |first=Patrick |url=https://uolpress.co.uk/book/the-control-of-the-past |title=The Control of the Past: Herbert Butterfield and the Pitfalls of Official History |date=2021-12-06 |publisher=University of London |isbn=978-1-914477-21-8 |chapter=‘One of his most violent essays’ |doi=10.14296/202112.9781914477218}}</ref> but faced pressure from many other British historians, including John Wheeler-Bennett, to agree to delay.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Sweet |first=Paul R. |date=1997 |title=Interview with Paul Sweet |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24449969 |journal=The Historian |volume=59 |issue=2 |pages=280–289 |jstor=24449969 |issn=0018-2370}}</ref> Lambert was also a member of the international Historical Advisory Committee that discussed the return of documents to West Germany from 1956.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Watt |first=D. Cameron |date=1993 |title=British Historians, the War Guilt Issue, and Post-War Germanophobia: A Documentary Note |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2639521 |journal=The Historical Journal |volume=36 |issue=1 |pages=179–185 |doi=10.1017/S0018246X00016162 |jstor=2639521 |issn=0018-246X|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
Lambert took up a Lectureship at the University of St Andrews in October 1956.<ref name=":1" /> She was the first woman to be hired directly into this role rather than promoted from being an assistant and had a starting salary of £1200 per year.<ref name=":0" /> Marx moved to live with Lambert in St Andrews. Lambert left St Andrews in January 1961 and returned to work for the Foreign Office.<ref name=":0" />
In 1971, following Woodward's death, Lambert finished work on ''British Foreign Policy in the Second World War''. She wrote a preface on the Dawes Plan and Hague Conference on reparations which was included in the ''Documents on British Foreign Policy'' published in 1975.<ref name=":1" />
== Death and commemoration == Lambert and Marx's collection of popular art is held at the Compton Verney Art Gallery.<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Creative Lesbians and Gay Men |url=https://historicengland.org.uk/research/inclusive-heritage/lgbtq-heritage-project/workplaces-and-creativity/creative-lesbians-and-gay-men |access-date=25 February 2025 |website=Historic England |language=en}}</ref>
Lambert's memorial was commissioned by Marx and made by Judith Verity. It was placed at St Michael's, Spreyton.
== References == {{Reflist}} {{authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Lambert, Margaret}} Category:1906 births Category:1995 deaths Category:20th-century British historians Category:Alumni of the London School of Economics Category:Academics of the University of St Andrews Category:20th-century British LGBTQ people Category:BBC people