Harry Lamborn


Harry George Lamborn, British Labour Party politician, was born in London and had a background in the British trade union movement — specifically his union USDAW, local government and the London Co-operative movement.
He was a councillor from 1953, and a Member of Parliament from 1972 until his death in 1982.

Early political life

Lamborn was a member of Camberwell Borough Council from 1953 to 1965, including being mayor in 1963/4. He represented the Dulwich constituency on the London County Council between 1958 and 1965. Lamborn was elected to the successor body, the Greater London Council in 1964 for the constituency of Southwark and was re-elected in 1967 and 1970. He was Deputy Chairman of the GLC 1971/2.

Member of Parliament

After Ray Gunter resigned from the House of Commons, Harry Lamborn was elected at a by-election in May 1972 for the constituency of Southwark. After his constituency was eliminated in boundary changes, he ran in the newly configured Peckham and was comfortably re-elected in the February 1974 general election when the Labour Party returned to office, albeit without a majority. He was Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Denis Healey from 1974 to 1979.
At the general election of 1979, the Labour Government was defeated, and a Conservative Party Government was elected under Margaret Thatcher. Lamborn was comfortably re-elected but with a reduced majority.

Death and legacy

He died in August 1982, and was succeeded in the Peckham constituency by Harriet Harman in a by-election later that year.
His name lives on in Harry Lamborn House, a block of sheltered flats for the elderly built by Southwark Council on Gervase Street, off the Old Kent Road in Peckham.