Portrait by Andy Pilsbury

Born in Ladywood as one of five siblings, Patrick endured a period of homelessness as a child, before his family eventually settled in Kingshurst. He describes his childhood as a happy one and recalls being skilled at art in school, despite not being particularly academic.

Upon leaving school, Patrick secured a job at J W Barrett & Sons, doing polishing and eventually mounting and enamelling. He worked on various prestigious pieces of jewellery for the British Royal Family, and this royal connection continued as he began to work for the company Alabaster & Wilson. Despite learning to do a variety of jobs during his time at Alabaster & Wilson, Patrick made a wide range of pieces, including diamond set horses; he notably made a racing horse brooch for the Queen’s 90th birthday. Patrick took on a lot of Alabaster & Wilson’s work and created a separate business P W Lambert Jewellery Limited when they retired.

When I first started here it was quite a different character. Walking around the jewellery trade, my kids thought it was hilarious because I couldn’t go ten feet without saying hello to somebody that I knew, the whole trade was like that. Everybody knew everybody and if you needed a specialist job done you knew who to go to and get it sorted.

– Patrick Lambert

Listen to Patrick

Patrick talks about when he started at Alabaster & Wilson and what he liked about the job