Major-General Thomas Stanton Lambert, CB CMG (1870/71 – 20 June 1921) was a British Army officer of the First World War era.

On 20 June 1921 Lambert's car was ambushed by the Irish Republican Army, while he was travelling from a tennis match with a fellow officer and their wives.

[24][25] On 9 March, Lambert was appointed to the temporary rank of brigadier general and placed in command of the New Army's 69th Infantry Brigade, part of the 23rd Division, which he led on the Italian front in late 1917 and into the spring of 1918.

[29] He was promoted to the temporary rank of major general on 31 May 1918, when he was appointed to command the 32nd Division, which, like the 69th Brigade, was a New Army formation, at the time serving on the Western Front.

[21][30] Lambert was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath "for valuable services rendered in connection with Military Operations in Italy" in the June 1918 Birthday Honours.

[34] He was promoted to the substantive rank of colonel on 13 October and the same month was granted command of the 13th Infantry Brigade, which was stationed in Athlone, Ireland, as part of the 5th Division.

[36] In January 1919, the First Dáil, which was dominated by members of the Irish republican Sinn Fein political party, convened at Mansion House in Dublin and declared Ireland independent from both the United Kingdom and the British Empire.

Meanwhile, IRA Director of Intelligence and legendary guerilla warfare strategist Michael Collins had been determined to secure the release of Irish Volunteers General Seán Mac Eoin ever since the latter been captured by the British in March 1921.

For this reason, Lambert was selected for abduction and orders were accordingly dispatched to the IRA flying column based in Tubberclare, which was part of the Athlone Brigade.

[1][37][2] A party of 14 IRA men, commanded by Captain John J. Elliott, lay in wait near Moydrum with rifles, pistols and shotguns; Lambert's car approached around 7.30 pm.

[2][4] On 21 June 1921, a group of Black and Tans burned down many homes in Knockcroghery, in reprisal for the attack on Colonel Commandant Lambert the day before.

In the early hours of 2 July a group of masked men in "trench coats and tweed caps" burnt five farmhouses in Coosan district and one at Mount Temple in retaliation for the assassination of Col.-Com.

The following day the IRA retaliated by burning down Moydrum Castle, the home of Anglo-Irish landlord Albert Handcock, 5th Baron Castlemaine.