The paper examines aspects of the career of Professor Sir Horace Lamb, FRS, a highly regarded classical fluid mechanicist, who, over a period of some thirty-five years at Manchester, made notable contributions in research, in education and in wise administration at both national and university levels. The article reveals the unusual sequence of events that led to his removing from Adelaide, South Australia, where he had served for nine years as the Elder Professor of Mathematics, to Manchester where he frequently interacted (sometimes rather coolly) with Manchester's other outstanding fluid mechanicist of the period, Osborne Reynolds.