The Famous Faces of Clan Lamont

To begin with, we’d like to take you back to the 1800s, to meet the often forgotten, but extremely impressive astronomer and physicist, John Lamont. John was born on the 13^th of December 1805 near Inverey in Aberdeenshire to Robert Lamont, a forester, and his wife Elizabeth Ewan.

In his early childhood, he studied at the small local school in Inverey, but his world was tipped upside down when his father died in 1817, and his mother decided to send him to St James’ Monastery in Regensburg, Germany to finish his education. Whilst at the monastery, John developed a keen interest for science, becoming particularly fascinated by space, the planets, and the stars. After finishing school, John was not yet ready to give up learning, so he completed a Doctor of Philosophy at Munich University in 1830, before venturing into the working world, aiming to carve a career in astronomy. It didn’t take long for his talents to be spotted, and by 1835 he was running the Bogenhausen Observatory, where he created a breathtaking star catalogue comprised of over 35,000 entries.

He also undertook a range of other deeply significant work while at Bogenhausen. He discovered that the strength of the Earth’s magnetic field varies over periods of around 10 years, a fact that was eventually crucial in developing an understanding of the solar cycle. What’s more, he calculated the orbits on the moons of Uranus and Saturn, determining the very first estimate of Uranus’ mass!

Lamont also contributed greatly to the global scientific community, becoming an active member of many societies, including the Royal Bavarian Academy of Sciences, the Royal Society of London, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and the Academies of Brussels, Upsala, and Prague.

He even helped to provide vital research equipment for fellow scientists, producing a range of scientific instruments in his workshop and selling them to observatories all over the world. In the 1850s, Lamont began to formally share his expertise when he took on a teaching role as a professor of astronomy at the University of Munich.

He died in Munich on the 6^th of August 1879 and was buried in Bogenhausen Churchyard, not far from his beloved observatory. As he was unmarried and had no children, his impressive fortune went to funding a number of science scholarships. It seems a typically gallant act for a member of the Lamont clan to continue to provide for others, even after death.

In recognition of his brilliant contributions to astronomy, craters on both Mars and the Moon have been named after him, taking the Lamont family all the way to space!

While John made a splash in science, our next famous face for today made a name for themselves on the silver screen.

Molly Lamont was born on the 22^nd of May 1910 in Transvaal, South Africa. Her magnetism was obvious from a very young age, when she impressed in school and excelled in a number of sports teams.

Her life changed for good when she won a beauty contest in her teens and was offered a film test by British International Pictures as part of her prize. She packed up and moved all the way to England, before quickly getting to work, racking up a number of small, uncredited roles in numerous films.

By the mid-1930s, she had well and truly proven herself and her offers began to get better and better. She even won a coveted Hollywood contract and moved to Los Angeles to star alongside icons such as Cary Grant, playing his fiancée in ‘The Awful Truth’ in 1937. She worked steadily in LA, appearing in other popular films such as ‘The White Cliffs of Dover’ and ‘Christmas Eve.’

By the time she retired in 1951, she had more than 50 roles to her name! She spent her retirement enjoying the spoils of her work with her husband, aerospace industry pioneer, Edward Antoine Bellande, and participating in local community theatre productions. Molly clearly had a touch of the Lamont thoughtfulness and generosity, as we’re sure the small companies would have been very excited to have a bona fide movie star in their plays!

She died on the 2^nd of July 2000 in Los Angeles, aged 89, having lived an adventurous life fitting of her Clan Lamont ancestry.

Our final famous face for today also excelled in the film industry, and while you may not be familiar with him, you’ll certainly be very familiar with his work!

Peter Curtis Lamont, born on the 12^th of November 1929, was a set decorator, artist, and production designer who worked extensively with the iconic director James Cameron, even winning an Academy Award for his design on Titanic!

That was arguably not the most significant moment of his career. Lamont worked on every James Bond film between Goldfinger in 1963 and Casino Royale in 2006, with only one exception, as Tomorrow Never Dies clashed with the production of Titanic.

He was a beloved and greatly admired character on the set, and received high praise from many of its stars, including Roger Moore, who is quoted as saying ‘I so admire Peter and his colleagues, they make the impossible possible and the unbelievable believable,’ and Judi Dench, who called his work ‘gorgeous.’

Lamont was the brains behind numerous iconic Bond moments, and he even taught the actor Christopher Lee how to assemble his infamous golden gun.

His dedication, flexibility and enthusiasm were unmatched, and he gladly took on any number of unpredictable and unusual responsibilities! Before filming Thunderball, he completed an intensive course in scuba-diving to help him create the many water based scenes. He also spent a prolonged period of time studying a Vulcan bomber at RAF Waddington, familiarising himself with every inch of the machine, so that he could make a convincing, 14-tonne replica for the screen.

It is clear that Peter was blessed with a wealth of typical Lamont traits, including perseverance, creativity, and a healthy lack of fear! It’s great to find out that a member of the clan played such an instrumental role in creating a cultural phenomenon as enduring as the Bond series.

Image Sources:

John Lamont and Molly Lamont - in public domain

The Grand Staircase By Cliff - originally posted to Flickr as The Grand Staircase, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7051734