Archibald Lamont


Dr Archibald "Archie" Lamont was a Scottish geologist, palaeontologist and Scottish Nationalist writer and politician. He named the trilobite genus Wallacia after William Wallace.

Life

Born on 21 October 1907 at Ardbeg Villa, Rothesay, Bute, the son of Barbara Mathie and lawyer John McNab Lamont. He was educated at Port Bannatyne School and Rothesay Academy. He studied science at the University of Glasgow graduating with an MA in 1928, a BSc in 1932, and specialising in geology at postgraduate level gained a doctorate in 1935. He was active in the Glasgow University Scottish Nationalist Association and wrote extensively for the University magazine, under various pseudonyms. In the 1950s, he was active in the Scottish National Congress.
He began his academic career as assistant lecturer, then lecturer, in geology at the University of Birmingham. He was then appointed Carnegie Research Fellow at the University of Edinburgh.
Lamont was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh on 6 March 1950, upon the proposal of Sir Edward B Bailey, Arthur Holmes, John G C Anderson and Frederick William Anderson.
He was also a Fellow of the Geological Society of London, and a member of the Edinburgh Geological Society and the Geological Society of Glasgow.
He died on 16 March 1985.

Family

Lamont married Rose Bannatyne Mackinlay in 1936.