Dr Archibald Lamont FRSE FGS (1907-1985) was a Scottish geologist, palaeontologist and Scottish Nationalist writer and politician. He named the trilobite genus Wallacia after William Wallace.
Born on 21 October 1907 at Ardbeg Villa, Rothesay, Bute, the son of lawyer John McNab Lamont and Barbara Mathie, he was educated at Port Bannatyne School and Rothesay Academy (1918-25). Lamont studied Science at Glasgow University, graduating MA (1928), BSc (1932) and specialising in geology at postgraduate level gained a doctorate (PhD) in 1935. He was active in the Glasgow University Scottish Nationalist Association and wrote extensively for the university magazine, under various pseudonyms. In the 1950s, he was active in the Scottish National Congress.
He began his academic career as assistant lecturer (1936), then lecturer (1944), in geology at Birmingham University. He was then appointed Carnegie Research Fellow at Edinburgh University (1945-55).
Lamont was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh on 6 March 1950, upon the proposal of Sir Edward B Bailey, Arthur Holmes, John G C Anderson and Frederick William Anderson.