Ernest Lamb, 1st Baron Rochester
Ernest Henry Lamb, 1st Baron Rochester, CMG (September 4, 1876 – January 13, 1955), was a British Liberal and National Labour politician who served as Paymaster-General from 1931 to 1935 in the National Government of Ramsay Macdonald.
The eldest son of Benjamin Lamb, Rochester at first worked in business. He then turned to politics and was elected to Parliament for Rochester in 1906 as a Liberal. He lost his seat in the January 1910 general election, but returned for Rochester already in the December 1910 general election. He continued to hold this seat until the constituency was abolished in 1918. Rochester later became a supporter of the Labour Party. In 1931 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Rochester, of Rochester in the County of Kent.
Rochester was a supporter of Ramsay Macdonald after the latter formed the National Government in August 1931 and his subsequent expulsion from the Labour Party, and became a member of the National Labour Party, founded the same year by supporters of Macdonald. In November 1931 Macdonald appointed him Paymaster-General in the National Government. He continued to hold this post until 1935, and during the same period also represented the Ministry of Labour in the House of Lords.
Lord Rochester married Rosa Dorothea Hurst, daughter of William John Hurst, in 1913. He died in January 1955, aged 78, and was succeeded in the barony by his eldest son Foster Charles Lowry Lamb.