The Right Honourable The Viscount Melville PC FRSE |
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Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville by Sir Thomas Lawrence
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First Lord of the Admiralty | |
In office May 1804 – May 1805 |
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Monarch | George III |
Prime Minister | Hon. William Pitt the Younger |
Preceded by | Earl of St. Vincent |
Succeeded by | Lord Barham |
Secretary of State for War | |
In office July 1794 – March 1801 |
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Monarch | George III |
Prime Minister | Hon. William Pitt the Younger |
Preceded by | New Office |
Succeeded by | Lord Hobart |
President of the Board of Control | |
In office June 1793 – May 1801 |
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Monarch | George III |
Prime Minister |
Hon. William Pitt the Younger Henry Addington |
Preceded by | Lord Grenville |
Succeeded by | Viscount Lewisham |
Home Secretary | |
In office 8 June 1791 – 11 July 1794 |
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Monarch | George III |
Prime Minister | Hon. William Pitt the Younger |
Preceded by | The Lord Grenville |
Succeeded by | The Duke of Portland |
Lord Advocate | |
In office 24 May 1775 – August 1783 |
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Monarch | George III |
Prime Minister |
Lord North Marquess of Rockingham Earl of Shelburne Duke of Portland |
Preceded by | Sir James Montgomery |
Succeeded by | The Hon. Henry Erskine |
Personal details | |
Born |
Edinburgh, Scotland |
28 April 1742
Died | 28 May 1811 Edinburgh, Scotland |
(aged 69)
Citizenship | Great Britain |
Nationality | Scottish |
Political party | Tory |
Spouse(s) | (1) Elizabeth Rennie (2) Lady Jane Hope (died 1829) |
Children | Robert Dundas, 2nd Viscount Melville |
Alma mater | University of Edinburgh |
Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville, PC, FRSE (28 April 1742, Edinburgh, Scotland – 28 May 1811, Edinburgh) was a Scottish advocate and Tory politician. He was the first Secretary of State for War and became, in 1806, the last person to be impeached in the United Kingdom, for misappropriation of public money. Although acquitted, he never held public office again.
Dundas was a key actor in the encouragement of the Scottish Enlightenment, in the prosecution of the war against France, in opposing the abolition of slavery, and in the expansion of British influence in India, dominating the affairs of the East India Company. An accomplished machine politician and scourge of the Radicals, his deft and almost total control of Scottish politics during a long period when no monarch visited the country, led to him being pejoratively nicknamed King Harry the Ninth, the "Grand Manager of Scotland" (a play on the masonic office of Grand Master of Scotland), the "Great Tyrant" and "The Uncrowned King of Scotland".
He is commemorated by one of the most prominent memorials in Edinburgh, the 150-foot high, Category A listed Melville Monument at St Andrew Square, in the heart of the New Town he helped to establish.