Charles Joseph Lambert
| Charles Joseph Lambert | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
Carlos José Lambert 1826 La Serena, Chile |
| Died | 11 July 1888 Cowes, Isle of Wight, England |
| Occupation | Mining engineer Mining entrepreneur |
| Spouse(s) | Susan Bath/Lambert
1829-1898
|
| Children | 1. Catherine Susan Lambert/Clutterbuck 1849-1915
2. Charles L. Lambert 1851-1874
3. Janet Spears Lambert/Black 1852-?
4. Henry Bath Lambert 1853-1892
5. Margaret Lambert 1856-1892
6. Robert Spears Lambert 1858-1902
7. Helen Mark Lambert/Levett 1864-?
8. Beatrice Kate Lambert ?-?
9. George Maximiano Lambert1868-1891
10. William Stanley Lambert 1869-1907
|
| Parent(s) |
1793-1876
_____ Spears |
Charles Joseph Lambert / Carlos José Lambert (1826 - 1888) was a Chilean-born mining entrepreneur and engineer.
Carlos José Lambert is believed to have been born in or near La Serena. However, surviving records of his birth and baptism have not been identified. (In the 1820s members of the European expatriate community frequently attended to baptismal formalities not in Roman Catholic churches onshore, but on British ships moored offshore.)
His father Carlos Saint Lambert (1793-1876), was a prominent, and increasingly prosperous, mining entrepreneur who had been born in Strasbourg and emigrated to Chile in 1817. He established contacts in England, acquired British nationality and returned to Chile in 1823 as a representative of a British company called the "Chilean Mining Association", which later went bankrupt. The career of Charles Saint Lambert (the father) continued to prosper, however. Little is known of his mother, who is frequently described as "English", although at least one source indicates that she was born further north, in Scotland.
Charles Joseph Lambert spent much of his childhood in Britain. Around 1840 his father relocated the family base to Swansea which was becoming the principal smelting centre for industrial scale copper (and other) ores from Chile, following the exhaustion of principal mines closer to hand in Cornwall. In Swansea he was involved in regular commercial negotiations with Edward Bath, scion of a major industrial family in the area (and subsequently his brother-in-law twice over). In practice, he appears to have divided his time between Chile and South Wales throughout his working life.
As a mining engineer he exploited new copper-smelting technology employing "coal-using reverbatory furnaces" which his father had introduced to Chile in 1848, and which at this stage gave an important competitive advantage. He was also active as a farmer, with an extensive property in the valley of the Rapel River, centred on a Welsh style farmhouse. This farm also included silver deposits which he exploited.
He actively promoted the construction of the railway connecting La Serena with the port of Coquimbo, taking a significant shareholding in the project, which also linked up two of the family's smelting locations. He promoted the exploitation of sheep imported from England and Australia, as well as raising sheep himself. In La Serena has also backed the drainage project, proposing the construction of a canal to divert water from the Elqui River to an outlet near the port which would drain the coastal area of the Bay of Coquimbo.
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Wikipedia