But unlike his fellow MPs, Mr Lamb was thousands of miles away across the sea, his exact whereabouts unknown.

He was a prisoner of war and would become the only sitting MP to be killed in action during the Second World War.

On January 1, either in 1900 or 1903, George Hamilton Lamb was born in Bendigo to William Edward Lamb and Sarah Victoria Lamb.

Mr Lamb grew up across the state as both his parents were teachers.

SPORT:

In 1914, a few months before the outbreak of the Great War, Mr Lamb's father secured work as the editor of the Stawell Times.

Growing up in Australia during the First World War was a formative time for the country, as the ANZAC legend was being forged day by day, but it was also for Mr Lamb himself.

He was a cadet at the Stawell and Ararat Commonwealth Senior Cadets (Area 73c), and The Stawell Times encouraged enlistment and published war stories and state and federal politics.

It is hard to imagine the profound effect on Mr Lamb growing up during the First World War had on the young Lamb. The values that led him to enlist to fight in the Second War War came into being.

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At Melbourne University, he joined the Melbourne University Rifles before graduating in 1921 and becoming a teacher, just like his parents.

In 1923, he became the Preparatory Geelong Grammar School's headmaster before moving to the Gordon Institute to lecture in English until 1931.

During this time, Mr Lamb married his fiancée, Marie Christine Schultz, in April 1929.

Before moving into politics, he was the principal of Kyneton College between 1931 and 1933.

Lamb grew up in a Conservative environment, his father a staunch supporter of the Nationalist Party, but Lamb's politics were increasingly complicated.

RURAL:

Although he was a member of the Country Party, he did not always tow the party line and even opposed party leader Premier Albert Dunstan in what became known as the 'Hocking Dispute'.

He was described in September 1944 as 'one of the most radical and progressive men in the house' and, in his experience as a teacher, he sought sweeping reforms of the Education Department.

On June 19 1940, Hamilton Lamb enlisted in the Second Australian Imperial Force; on February 20 1941, Marie passed away after a long illness, leaving Lamb's children in the care of his twin sister, Florence.

Later that year, his battalion sailed for the Middle East, destined to fight the forces of Vichy France in Syria.

After Japan entered the war in December 1941, Australian Prime Minister John Curtin ordered Australia's soldiers overseas home.

Lamb was on board the SS Orcades with his battalion as it made the return journey, but the soldiers were ordered to defend the Indonesian island of Java, which was being threatened by Japanese forces.

The Orcades turned around a docked in Batavia, present-day Jakarta and on February 28 1942, the Japanese arrived on Java.

By March 8, Lamb was a prisoner of war after the island's defenders were ordered to surrender.

Like many prisoners of war, Lamb was sent to work on the infamous Burma Railway in Thailand, connecting Bangkok with Rangoon in Burma, now Myanmar.

Workers on the railway, whether they were civilian labourers or POWs, were made to suffer horrific conditions, suffering from diseases such as malaria and dysentery and fighting against thick jungles and malnutrition.

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This is where Hamilton Lamb was during the 1943 state election, one of just ten sitting MPs who served during the war.

A few months later, on September 12 1943, Lamb's twin sister Florence received a letter stating, as reported in this masthead, that her brother was in "excellent health" and was being treated well by his Japanese captors.

This couldn't be further from the case, as Lamb passed away from dysentery on December 7, 1943.

He was the only sitting Australian MP to be killed in action during the Second World War and was buried at the Thanbyuzayat War Cemetery in present-day Myanmar.

Many Members of Parliament enter politics with grandiose ideals, firm ethics and a desire to make the world a better place for their constituents.

Not all of them enlisted to fight in the war for them.

George Hamilton Lamb was such a man, a rebellious member of the Country Party, a writer of poetry, a teacher, a soldier, a family man and an idealist.

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