John Lamb (Australian politician)

Commander John Lamb (1790 – 17 January 1862) was an English-born Australian naval officer, banker and politician. The son of Captain Edward Lamb of the East India Company and Eliza Buchanan, Lamb was appointed to the New South Wales Legislative Council on 10 September 1844. He had a distinguished career with the Royal Navy, beginning at age 11 on his uncle Captain William Buchanan's British Navy warship, the Leviathan. Lamb was noted for his role in several feats over the French and accepted the rank of retired naval commander in May 1846.

Commander Lamb founded a banking family in Australia as chairman of the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney (now National Australia Bank). Four of his sons also became CBCS directors, namely the bankers and politicians Walter Lamb, Alfred Lamb, Edward Lamb and the banker John de Villiers Lamb. His wife Emma (née Robinson) was the daughter of the deputy chairman of Lloyds Bank. His daughter-in-law by John Lamb, Henrietta Lamb, was the sister of the deputy chairman of the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney, Thomas Smith.