Benjamin Peffer Lamberton (1844-1912)

Birth: February 25, 1844; Cumberland County, Pennsylvania

Death: June 9, 1912 (age 68); Washington, D.C.

Military Service: USN, 1861-65

Unit: Asiatic Squadron, South Atlantic Squadron

Alma Mater: Dickinson College, B.A. (Class of 1862)

Benjamin Lamberton attended Carlisle High School and the Dickinson Preparatory School before spending three years as a member of the Dickinson College class of 1862. He was a member of Belles Lettres Literary Society.

Lamberton decided on a naval career and in 1861 transferred to the Naval Academy, graduating in time to see active service on the U.S.S. America as it pursued the Confederate raiders Florida and Tallahassee in 1864. He served with the rank of lieutenant commander from 1868 to 1885 when he was promoted to commander and assigned to the Lighthouse Board in Charleston as an inspector. In 1898 Lamberton was ordered to command the cruiser Boston of the Asiatic Squadron, but upon arrival in Hong Kong he was appointed as chief of staff to Commodore Dewey. He fought alongside Dewey at the Battle of Manila and later acted as naval representative to the negotiating of the Spanish surrender. He was promoted to captain soon after and took command of the U.S.S. Olympia. In 1903, he became a rear admiral with the command of the South Atlantic Squadron. His final post was as chairman of the Lighthouse Board from which he retired on his sixty-second birthday.

He married Elizabeth Stedman of Boston in 1873. He lived in Washington, D.C. during his retirement, duck hunting and fishing with his friend President Cleveland. Benjamin Lamberton died in Washington, D.C. on June 9, 1912.