Harold Mortimer-Lamb
Harold Mortimer-Lamb (1872 - 1970) was an Anglo-Canadian mining engineer, journalist, photographer, and artist perhaps best known for championing the Group of Seven in the 1920s. He was the father of New Brunswick artist Molly Lamb Bobak.
Also recorded as Harold Lamb · H. Mortimer Lamb
Harold Mortimer-Lamb

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- Name
- Harold Mortimer-Lamb
- Born
- 21 May 1872
- Birthplace
- Leatherhead, England
- Died
- 25 October 1970
- Place of death
- Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
- Occupation
- Mining Engineer
- Nationality
- Canada
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Harold Mortimer-Lamb (1872 - 1970) was an Anglo-Canadian mining engineer, journalist, photographer, and artist perhaps best known for championing the Group of Seven in the 1920s. He was the father of New Brunswick artist Molly Lamb Bobak.
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Harold Mortimer-Lamb (1872–1970) was an art critic, mining engineer and painter, among other activities, of Canadian nationality. The art critic was born in Leatherhead and died in Burnaby. Works are held at Minneapolis Institute of Art, National Gallery of Canada and Photography Collection.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 01 October 2026
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In this article
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Harold Mortimer-Lamb • Born — 21 May 1872 • Birthplace — Leatherhead, England • Died — 25 October 1970 • Place of death — Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada • Occupation — Mining Engineer • Children — Molly Lamb Bobak, Oliver Mortimer-Lamb
Early life
Early life
Harold Mortimer-Lamb was born in Leatherhead, Surrey, England on 21 May 1872. He immigrated to Canada in 1889, settling in British Columbia. He began his career as a farmhand, then became a layreader for an Anglican Church. He met and married Katherine Mary Lindsay in 1896, and had six children with her - one which was stillborn and one which died in infancy. Four sons lived to adulthood: Oliver, J. Haliburton (who became a soldier in the First World War), Willoughby, and Lawrence. The family moved to Montreal and hired a housekeeper named Mary Williams (formerly Alice Price). Harold's wife Kate had begun to take ill and is described as "sickly" from now until the end of her life. At some point in their stay in Montreal, Harold experienced a mental-health crisis of some kind and resigned his position with the Canadian Mining Institute, wishing to return to BC; they instead instituted a transfer to the West Coast with a leave of absence. In 1920, the family moved back to British Columbia, taking Mary Williams with them. At this time, Mary was pregnant with Harold's child; Molly Lamb was born in February 1920, just after the move. Mary Williams stayed with the Mortimer-Lamb family for 22 years. Kate died after 45 years of marriage to Harold. Mary and Harold never married. In 1942, Harold Mortimer-Lamb married Vera Weatherbie, a muse of Frederick Varley's and a school friend of Molly's. Harold was 70 and Vera 33 at the time; this marriage lasted 28 years, until Harold's death at the age of 99. Most of his professional life was in the mining industry of Canada. He did, however, become interested in photography early on, specializing in soft focus romantic portraits.
Mining engineering
Mining engineering
He worked for the Bureau of Information for the B.C. Government. He became Secretary-Treasurer of the Provincial Mining Association of B.C.; Secretary of the Canadian Mining Institute and served on the staff of the Department of Mines in Ottawa. He was the founding editor of the British Columbia Mining Record. Mortimer-Lamb was appointed Secretary of the Canadian Mining Institute in the early 1900s which required him to relocate to Montreal.
Further readng
Further readng
* * * * * * * *
Identity and overview
Identity and overview
The following is established of the heading itself.
Works and production
Works and production
Harold Mortimer-Lamb is recorded with the occupation photographer. It is also recorded that harold Mortimer-Lamb is recorded with the occupation painter. The record continues: harold Mortimer-Lamb is recorded with the occupation art critic. Recorded as a citizen of Canada. Recorded with the gender male. Born on 21 May 1872. Recorded with the occupation mining engineer. Mortimer-Lamb died on 25 October 1970.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Leatherhead.
Birth place
Burnaby.
Death place
Publications
• Photograms of the Year (1895 - 1940) with Sidney Carter • British Columbia Mining Record (ed.)
Photography
• Illustration — The Pool, Harold Mortimer-Lamb c. 1907, a gelatin silver print While living in Montreal, he had the opportunity to meet, and become acquainted with, many of the leading artists of the day including Homer Watson, William Brymner, Maurice Cullen, Laura Muntz Lyall and later, members of the Group of Seven, in particular A.Y. Jackson. During this time, he also acted as the Montreal correspondent for the leading English art journal, The Studio. As an art critic he wrote in defence of the Group of Seven at a time when most other critics were attacking their work. Around 1920, he left his position at the Mining Institute in Montreal to take up the post of Secretary-Treasurer of the BC Division in Vancouver. In 1926, he opened a gallery on Robson Street with fellow photographer John Vanderpant. Although their association was short-lived, the gallery continued and was a centre for music, poetry, and painting. Among the artists showcased were members of the Group of Seven. After his retirement from the mining industry in 1941, he himself began to paint, his works being exhibited in Montreal and Vancouver. As a photographer, Mortimer-Lamb's work was widely exhibited and he was considered a prominent member of the Pictorialist movement. He organized the first major Canadian exhibition of Pictorialist photography in 1907 with Sidney Carter. Mortimer-Lamb was eventually elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society and a member of The Linked Ring. For many years, he also fostered a keen interest in the arts, helping to found a small art club in Victoria and frequently contributing articles on the Canadian art scene to the Canadian Magazine and other periodicals. Additionally, he wrote art criticism as well as about his experiments with photographic technique for international photography journals and for the Pictorialist publications Photograms of the Year and the Studio. In 1942, he married painter and model Vera (Olivia) Weatherbie. His daughter was Molly Lamb Bobak, a well-known Canadian artist, and Canada's first woman war artist. Harold Mortimer-Lamb died in Burnaby, BC on 25 October 1970.
Reception and standing
The scholarly and documentary record stands as follows.
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- “Harold Mortimer-Lamb”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q18157773: Harold Mortimer-Lamb
General reference · Wikidata
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Amos, Robert. The story of a true art lover. Times Colonist.
- 2.Vera Weatherbie. British Columbia Artists: Art & Artists in Exhibition: Vancouver 1890 - 1950.
- 3.Bassnett, Sarah. Photography in Canada, 1839–1989: An Illustrated History. Art Canada Institute. 2023. 978-1-4871-0309-5.
- 4.BC ARTISTS: Vera Olivia Weatherbie. sim-publishing.com.
References
Citations
References
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reference work
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General reference
People, houses and institutions
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People, houses and institutions
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Died at
1- BurnabyPlace
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Every statement above is held against the register that stated it; where the registers are silent, the entry is silent.
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 17 August 2026.
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