Charles George Lambie MB ChB MDFRSEMC (24 July 1891 – 28 August 1961) was a physician of Scots descent. He was the first doctor in Europe to useinsulin in the treatment ofdiabetes. He came to later fame in theUniversity of Sydney. Short of stature he was affectionately known asWee Mon by his students.
He was born on 24 July 1891 inPort of Spain inTrinidad the only son of Sophia Agnes Theresa Stollmeyer and her husband, Lt Col George Lambie, commanding officer of the Trinidad Light Infantry Volunteers. As a child he was a gifted musician and gave piano concerts at the age of 8.[1]
He was sent toboarding school in Scotland and was educated atAyr Academy and Stanley House School inStirlingshire. He went on to study medicine at theUniversity of Edinburgh, graduating with anMB ChB in 1914. He was President of theRoyal Medical Society in 1914–15, one of its youngest presidents. He won the Murchison Memorial Scholarship in 1915.[2]
His career was immediately disrupted byWorld War I during which he joined theRoyal Army Medical Corps in 1915, and saw action in Mesopotamia but was invalided out for a year to India where he served as a pathologist in Poona (nowPune). In 1917 he returned to active service on the Somme, rising to the rank of Captain and winning aMilitary Cross for bravery in 1918.
After the war he joined ProfessorArthur Robertson Cushny inEdinburgh as a Research Assistant. In 1921 he went to theUniversity of Toronto inCanada to work with professorsFrederick Banting andCharles Best, the creators ofinsulin. In 1922 he returned to Edinburgh and became the first person inEurope to useinsulin in the treatment ofdiabetes.[1] He was then Assistant Physician at theEdinburgh Royal Infirmary on Lauriston Place, and had also begun lecturing at the University of Edinburgh. He was theBeit Memorial Fellow 1923 to 1926. During this period he was also elected a member of theHarveian Society of Edinburgh.[3][4]
In 1927 he was elected aFellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, his proposers being Alexander Gray McKendrick,George Barger,William Ogilvy Kermack, andWilliam Glen Liston. He received his doctorate (MD) in the same year[5] with his thesisThe locus of insulin action,[6] and was also awarded a Lister Fellowship.[1]
In 1929 he declined a chair at theUniversity of Aberdeen and instead travelled to Australia to take up theGeorge Henry Bosch chair as Professor of Surgery at theUniversity of Sydney. Here he worked with his predecessor Professor Harold R. Dew to completely reformulate the academic curriculum in the Medical Faculty.[7] Working withVictor Trikojus, Lambie reported the first purification ofthyroid-stimulating hormone, in 1937. He came to the defence of Trikojus when he was arrested under wartime security regulations as an enemy alien in 1941. At the same time, he confirmed the "ardent Nazi leanings" of another colleague at the university,Henry Brose.[8]
In 1940 he became seriously ill withdiabetes and was also diagnosed with a heart condition. He retired from the university in 1957 and took up a committee role in theNew South Wales branch of theBritish Medical Association, then under the chairmanship ofSir William Morrow.[1] He died ofcoronary vascular disease on 28 August 1961 at theRoyal North Shore Hospital inSydney. His body was cremated.
Over and above his medical skills, Lambie was a skilled musician, studying composition underEdgar Bainton.
His portrait byNora Heysen is held by the University of Sydney.
In 1925 he married Eliza Anne Walton (1892-1965). They had two daughters, Brenda Jean (1926-2011) and Wilda Iona (1930-2011).
