Lamont, Thomas William

Lamont, Thomas William (ləmŏnt`), 1870–1948, American banker, b. Claverack, N.Y., grad. Harvard, 1892. Lamont entered (1903) the banking business in New York City and by 1911 was a partner of J. P. Morgan & Company. In the 1920s and the 1930s, Lamont was sent on special missions to several countries—e.g., China, Japan, Mexico, and Egypt—to help transact loans and to advise on financial matters. He served on the U.S. commission to the Paris Peace Conference and was (1933) a U.S. delegate to the World Economic Conference. After the reorganization (1940) of J. P. Morgan & Company, Lamont became (1943) chairman of the board of directors. His many philanthropies included gifts of $2 million to Harvard and $500,000 for the restoration of the Canterbury Cathedral after World War II. He recounted the story of his youth in My Boyhood in a Parsonage (1946).