Delighted to see and meet so many residents of Thorney on Saturday 15 April at my illustrated talk on their forgotten ‘son’, James Lambert.
His plaque in Thorney Abbey is unremarkable until closer inspection raises the question of why he was buried here. There were never any Lamberts living in this area (they came from Kings Cliffe in Northamptonshire). And, as the plaque makes clear, he was in practice in Walworth, London. It’s also odd in that the lower half of the white marble remains empty.
All was explained as was the important role James played in the history of modern health care. As the local museum shows, Thorney has connections with several people who have made contributions far and wide and James should certainly join them as someone who adopted the village as his spiritual home, marrying here in 1826 and, tragically, dying here some four years later.