Andrew Lambert BA (Law), MA, PhD, FRHistS (born 31 December 1956) is a British naval historian, who is currently Laughton Professor of Naval History in the Department of War Studies at King's College London.
Andrew Lambert was born in Norfolk, England and is the son of David George Lambert of Beetley, Norfolk and Nola, née Burton. He attended Hamond's High School, Swaffham, and received his BA in Law from the City of London Polytechnic. He earned his MA and PhD in naval history in the War Studies Department, King's College London.
After completing his doctoral research, Lambert was lecturer in modern international history at Bristol Polytechnic from 1983 until 1987; consultant in the Department of History and International Affairs at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, from 1987 until 1989; senior lecturer in war studies at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, from 1989 until 1991; senior lecturer in the Department of War Studies at King's College London from 1996 until 1999, then professor of naval history, from 1999 until 2001; and then Laughton Professor of Naval History, and Director of the Laughton Naval History Research Unit. He served as Hon. Secretary of the Navy Records Society 1991-2005 and is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
Lambert's work focuses on the naval and strategic history of the British Empire between the Napoleonic Wars and the First World War, and the early development of naval historical writing. His work has addressed a range of issues, including technology, policy-making, regional security, deterrence, historiography, crisis-management and conflict. He has lectured on aspects of his work around the world, from Australia and Canada to Finland, Denmark and Russia. In addition, he wrote and produced for the BBC, the "War at Sea" television series in 2004. He has also written works on important nineteenth century naval historians, including William James and Professor Sir John Knox Laughton, after whom Lambert's chair in Naval History at King's is named.
Battleships in transition : the creation of the steam battlefleet, 1815-1860 (1984)
Warrior : the world's first ironclad, then and now (1987)
The Crimean War: British Grand Strategy against Russia, 1853 - 1856 (1990)
The Last Sailing Battlefleet: Maintaining Naval Mastery 1815 - 1850 (1991)
Steam, steel and shellfire : the steam warship 1815-1906, edited by Andrew Lambert (1991)
The Crimean War: the war correspondents, edited by Andrew Lambert and Stephen Badsey (1994)
The Foundations of Naval History: Sir John Laughton, the Royal Navy and the Historical Profession (1998)
War at Sea in the Age of Sail (2000)
Laughton's legacy : naval history at King's College London Inaugural Lecture (2002)
Trincomalee: the last of Nelson's frigates (2002)
Letters and papers of Professor Sir John Knox Laughton, 1830-1915 Navy Records Society (2002)
The naval history of Great Britain : during the French revolutionary and Napoleonic wars by William James with new introductions by Andrew Lambert. (2002)
Nelson : Britannia's god of war (2005)
Admirals: The Naval Commanders who made Britain Great (2008)
'Preparing for the Russian War: British Strategy; March 1853 - March 1854.' War & Society (1989)
'The Naval War' in Pimlott, J.L. & Badsey, S. Eds. The Gulf War Assessed (London, 1992)
'Aland, Bomarsund and Anglo-Russian Relations 1815-1854' in Ericsson, K. & Montin, K. eds. I Vedlast Over Skiftet Och Alands Hav (Abo, 1993)
'Seapower 1939-40: Churchill and the Strategic Origins of the Battle of the Atlantic' Journal of Strategic Studies (March 1994)
'"Part of a Long Line of Circumvallation to Confine the Future Expansion of Russia': Great Britain and the Baltic 1809 - 1895.' In Rystad, Bohme & Carlgren Eds. In Quest of Trade and Security: The Baltic in Power Politics, 1500- 1990 (Lund University, Sweden, 1994)
'The Shield of Empire' (1815-1895) in J. R. Hill. Ed. The Oxford Illustrated History of the Royal Navy (Oxford, 1995)
'The Royal Navy 1856 - 1914: Deterrence and the Strategy of World Power' in Neilson, K. & Errington, J. Navies and Global Defense: Theories and Strategies (London, 1996)
'Empire and Seapower: Shipbuilding by the East India Company at Bombay for the Royal Navy 1805-1850' in Les Flottes Des Compagnes des Indes 1600-1857 (Paris, 1996)
'Politics, Technology and Policy-Making, 1859-1865: Palmerston, Gladstone and the Management of the Ironclad Naval Race' in The Northern Mariner vol. VIII (July 1998) pp.9-38
'Responding to the Nineteenth Century: the Royal Navy and the Introduction of the Screw Propeller' History of Technology (1999)
'Admiral Sir William Cornwallis' in Le Fevre & Harding, eds., The Precursors of Nelson (London, 2000)
'Under the heel of Britannia, the Bombardment of Sweaborg August 8-10 1855' and 'The Syrian Campaign, 1814' in Capt. P. Hore RN ed. Seapower Ashore: 200 Years of Royal Navy Operations on Land (London, 2001)
'The Principal Source of Understanding: Navies and the Educational Role of the Past' in Capt. P. Hore, RN, ed., The Hudson Papers Volume 1. (London: Ministry of Defence, 2001)
'Australia, the Trent Crisis of 1861 and the strategy of imperial defence' in Stevens, D. & Reeve, J., eds. Southern Trident: Strategy, History and the rise of Australian Naval Power (Sydney, Allen & Unwin, 2001)
'Introduction' and 'The Slide into War' in Gardiner, Robert, ed. The Naval War of 1812 (London, Caxton Editions, 2001)
'General Introduction' and 'Introduction Part 2' in James, W. M., The Naval History of Great Britain, During the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars: Volume 2, 1797-1799 (London, Conway Maritime Press, 2002)
'Winning without Fighting: British Grand Strategy and its Application to the United States, 1815-65' in Lee, Bradford A. & Walling, Karl F., eds. Strategic Logic and Political Rationality (London, Frank Cass, 2003)
'Introduction' in James, William, Naval Occurrences of The War of 1812 (London, Conway Maritime Press, 2004)
