Lamont, Hubert Gibson (1901–85), veterinary surgeon and researcher, was born in Cookstown, Co. Tyrone, younger son among two sons and two daughters of William S. Lamont (d. 1947), a well known and popular Cookstown vet, and his wife Sara Maude (née Gibson). He was a boarder at Coleraine Academical Institution, and then went to the Royal Veterinary College of Ireland, as it was then known, in Dublin. He graduated with honours in 1923, and won the Fitzwygram Prize, awarded annually to the most academically outstanding students from all of the veterinary colleges in the British Isles. He became a demonstrator in the department of pathology in the medical school in QUB, and was awarded the degrees of B.Sc. (1926) and M.Sc. (1928), both in pathology. While continuing to lecture on dairy bacteriology in QUB, he also worked from 1926 in the veterinary research laboratories at Stormont, Co. Down, which had been founded in 1923. In 1931 he was promoted to the directorship of the laboratories, and also became the first lecturer in veterinary science at QUB. He had a distinguished career in the university, becoming a senior lecturer and reader; in 1951 he was appointed to a personal chair as professor of comparative pathology and was dean of the faculty of agriculture (1959–62). When he retired (1966) he became professor emeritus of QUB.
His contribution to the development of the Northern Ireland state veterinary service was equally important, and in 1959 he was appointed chief scientific officer, with responsibility for coordinating all agricultural research in Northern Ireland. The first veterinary surgeon to hold the post, he was also the first veterinarian to be dean of a faculty in QUB. He served on the RCVS council 1951–71, and in 1962 he was the first Irish-born president of the RCVS. For many years he represented the NI division of the British Veterinary Association. He was a well-known public figure, sitting on the boards and committees of many public educational and medical bodies in Ireland and England, and particularly involved with his old school at Coleraine. He was external examiner (1940–46) for the RCVS and in several universities, and was chairman of the RCVS education committee, overseeing all veterinary examinations in the British Isles, and eventually initiating a reform of the panels of examiners. In recognition of his contributions to veterinary science and education, Lamont was elected to fellowship in the RCVS in 1968.
Other awards, including the OBE (1949) and CBE (1964), recognised Lamont's public service and research achievements. The University of Dublin awarded him an honorary D.Sc. in 1968. His research interests were varied, and his observations and experiments appeared in a large number of publications throughout his long career. He was involved with pioneering studies of tuberculosis testing in cattle, helping in 1947 to develop the ‘Stormont test’, well known in its day, and he also worked on a new type of vaccine to prevent brucellosis. His work on elucidating Aujeszky's disease (one of the most economically significant diseases of the pig, also known as pseudorabies) was outstanding, and gained for him an international reputation. He was also associated with pioneering studies of oedema disease in pigs.
He was a popular speaker and raconteur, and was prominent in his church and in the Masonic order; he had played rugby as a young man, and retained an interest in field sports and angling until his eyesight deteriorated in old age. His wife Sadie (née Starritt; date of marriage not known) from Desertmartin, Co. Tyrone, and two sons survived him at his death on 31 October 1985. The funeral service was in Conlig presbyterian church, Co. Down, near his Newtownards home, and he was afterwards cremated. In 2005 a new bacteriology building in the Stormont complex was officially named the Lamont Building in his honour.