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Lord Melbourne

The Right Honourable
The Viscount Melbourne
PC FRS
William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne by Sir Edwin Henry Landseer.jpg
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
In office
18 April 1835 – 30 August 1841
Monarch William IV
Victoria
Preceded by Sir Robert Peel, Bt
Succeeded by Sir Robert Peel, Bt
In office
16 July 1834 – 14 November 1834
Monarch William IV
Preceded by The Earl Grey
Succeeded by The Duke of Wellington
Leader of the Opposition
In office
30 August 1841 – October 1842
Monarch Victoria
Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel, Bt
Preceded by Sir Robert Peel, Bt
Succeeded by Lord John Russell
In office
14 November 1834 – 18 April 1835
Monarch William IV
Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel, Bt
Preceded by The Duke of Wellington
Succeeded by Sir Robert Peel, Bt
Home Secretary
In office
22 November 1830 – 16 July 1834
Prime Minister The Earl Grey
Preceded by Sir Robert Peel, Bt
Succeeded by The Viscount Duncannon
Chief Secretary for Ireland
In office
29 April 1827 – 21 June 1828
Prime Minister George Canning
The Viscount Goderich
The Duke of Wellington
Preceded by Henry Goulburn
Succeeded by Lord Francis Leveson-Gower
Personal details
Born (1779-03-15)15 March 1779
London, England
Died 24 November 1848(1848-11-24) (aged 69)
Brocket Hall, Hertfordshire, England
Political party Whig
Spouse(s) Lady Caroline Ponsonby (m. 1805; d. 1828)
Children 2
Alma mater Trinity College, Cambridge
Religion Church of England
Signature Cursive signature in ink

William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, PC, FRS (15 March 1779 – 24 November 1848), usually addressed as Lord Melbourne, was a British Whig statesman who served as Home Secretary (1830–1834) and Prime Minister (1834 and 1835–1841). He is best known for his intense and successful mentoring of Queen Victoria, at ages 18–21, in the ways of politics. Historians have concluded that Melbourne does not rank high as a prime minister, for there were no great foreign wars or domestic issues to handle, he lacked major achievements, and he enunciated no grand principles. "But he was kind, honest and not self-seeking." Melbourne was dismissed by King William IV in 1834, the last British prime minister to be dismissed by a monarch.

Born in London in 1779 to an aristocratic Whig family, William Lamb was the son of The 1st Viscount Melbourne and Elizabeth, Viscountess Melbourne (1751–1818), though his paternity was questioned. He was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he fell in with a group of Romantic Radicals that included Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron. Against the background of the Napoleonic Wars, Lamb served at home as captain (1803) and major (1804) in the Hertfordshire Volunteer Infantry.


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