About

Christian Lamb (Fellow of the Linnean Society & member of the Dendrology society) is intrepid, impetuous, adventurous, and always fun. There is a ruthless streak that allows her to kill off some unwanted plants “sort of by mistake, on purpose”, and another side that allows other plants, once she has had a taste of them, to be exiled to friends gardens where she longs to be invited to visit them.
The answer, perhaps, lies in the sea.
The daughter of an admiral, herself a Wren, then a naval wife, she has the discipline of the quarterdeck in her system. Yet, with that has come an understanding of the romance of the sea, of travel and its dangers. One can understand why she became captivated by the life and adventures of Sir Joseph Banks (1743 – 1820), on whom she is an authority, and then also by those other botanical buccaneers who brought us the sinews of what we now choose to call the “English Garden”. Look at the posthumous painting of Banks by Thomas Phillips for the Royal Society in 1822 and reproduced in her book.
Her favourite gardens include the incomparable woodland garden at Tregrehan, where she found the magic of the Camellia and becoming something of an expert on them.
She is a well respected lecturer on the history of plants wherever she goes.

The War Years

Christian had left school at 18 and was in France staying with a French family, later planning to go on to Oxford where her sister already was.

Not having read a newspaper for ages she was surprised to receive a telegram from her father, Admiral Ronald Wolseley Oldham, O.B.E, telling her to come home, as war was imminent.

Arriving home just as War was declared, Christian was among the first of the Wrens to join in WW2. After a stint at the Kensington training establishment and then HQ, Christian was promoted to Leading Wren and moved to the Coalhouse Fort in Tilbury where she had been appointed Degaussing Recorder in Charge – aged about 20.

A year later she was promoted to Third Officer WRNS, appointed to Plotting Officer at the HQ in Plymouth.

After another a year in Plymouth the whole station was moved to Liverpool and she was appointed to plot at Belfast.  Just North of this port was the point at which many of the ships would gather to join the convoys crossing the Atlantic.

Here she was in charge of a watch in the operations room at Belfast Castle where the Navy was based.  Many of the ships taking part in escorting these convoys were damaged by the atrocious weather in the Atlantic Ocean and some were sent into Belfast for repairs.  A Fleet Destroyer HMS Oribi arrived expecting to be several days in dock.

Here she met Lieutenant John Lamb DSC, the First Lieutenant of HMS Oribi and they became engaged to be married after just ten days. Which immediately called for a memorable celebration, which had hardly finished in time for the ship to be recalled back to sea on April 29. 1943 to escort a very slow convoy – the famous ONS 5.

Made famous by the headline in the Daily Express

WAR’S BIGGEST U-BATTLE – NAVY BEATS OFF 25 -4 SUNK – 6 LIKELIES.

“From that first report, the operations room at Belfast Castle and the plot in particular became the focus of attention. Signal after signal came in and the teleprinter whirred on relentlessly. Oribi was obviously heading for the wolf pack and the tension grew but of course the anxiety became acute especially after we heard that Oribi had rammed a U boat.
After what seemed an age a signal came to say Oribi was on her way safely to Newfoundland where she was fitted with a new bow. Out of the convoy of 43 ships 12 had been lost, but of the 40 U Boats involved 8 were destroyed and 12 damaged.
The best news was that Hitler was reportedly red faced with fury as Admiral Raeder resigned, It was quite a drama for me and all my friends, who had tried to keep me from being glued to the plot, but of course I had to see what was happening relying only on signals going to and fro.
John and I were married in London with the assistance of my mother who excelled herself using the date of Oribi’s possible boiler clean – 15th December 1943.”

 

Early in 1944 Christian was posted to Combined operations HQ at Richmond Terrace, Whitehall and her new vital role was to be working there under the Command of Rear Admiral HE Horan.

“ I was to be working on the actual maps of the planned landings. 

 My small office below stairs was for me alone; there many of us working on individual pieces of the enormous jigsaw, none of us knew or ever discussed what the others were doing.

 The real chosen landing places for the invasion on which my task was based were pinpointed for me on the large scale maps of France in my office, and my particular brief was to delineate everything that could be seen on every compass bearing from each landing position visible from the bridge of an approaching landing craft.  The big scale Ordnance survey maps were spread out on the wall and showed railways, roads, churches castles, and every possible feature to an incoming invader and from every angle.  It was intense and exciting work and obviously important to be detailed and accurate.

D Day happened on June 6th 1944 and when at 6am I heard the announcement on the radio I was thrilled to know that at last we had managed to carry out the plans, which had been envisaged for so long by so many brilliant brains.  We were there!  It was the beginning of our campaign to help get back France for the French.”