Henry Lambard Nichols (September 11, 1823 – February 16, 1915) was an American physician and Democratic politician from California.

He was born in Augusta, Maine, the son of Asaph R. Nichols (1797–1860) and Lucy Lambard (1803–1884).

His father, a prominent attorney, was clerk of the Supreme Court for many years and was Secretary of State of Maine from 1835 to 1837, and again in 1839.

Nichols's uncle, Allen Lambard, went to Sacramento, California, in 1852, and established the Lambard Flouring Mills, located on the corner of Second and I Streets, and the Sacramento Iron Works, where the wheels of the first locomotive ever used on a California railway were turned.

Because of his uncles' enthusiastic descriptions of the opportunities in California, Nichols decided to move to the Golden State.

After disembarking at Panama and crossing the isthmus, he boarded another ship to San Francisco, and arrived in Sacramento, in January 1853.

Nichols held other public offices too numerous to mention, including the Board of State Prison directors; one of the Trustees of the State Library, appointed by Governor Haight to fill the unexpired term of Governor Bigler; secretary of the State Board of Health; a City Health Officer; an Emergency Hospital Surgeon; and secretary of the Sacramento Board of Health.