William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne

Biography

William Lamb was born in London in 1779 into an aristocratic Whig family. He was educated at Eton, at Trinity College, Cambridge, and at the University of Glasgow, and was called to the bar from Lincoln's Inn in 1804. In 1805 he married Lady Caroline Ponsonby, whose public affair with Lord Byron in 1812 brought him unwanted notoriety.

He entered the House of Commons in 1806 and spent most of the next 22 years there, largely as a backbencher of moderate views. Although a Whig, he served as Chief Secretary for Ireland in the governments of Canning and Goderich in 1827-28, and in 1828 he succeeded his father as Viscount Melbourne and moved to the House of Lords. As Home Secretary under Lord Grey from 1830 he handled the Swing Riots through special commissions rather than troops, but supported the transportation of the Tolpuddle Martyrs in 1834.

He became prime minister in July 1834 and was dismissed by William IV in November, the last time a British monarch removed a prime minister, but he returned in April 1835 and governed until 1841. When Queen Victoria came to the throne in 1837 he became her close adviser and mentor, a relationship tested by the Lady Flora Hastings affair and the Bedchamber Crisis of 1839. His cabinet decided in 1839 to send the expedition that began the First Opium War.

After his government fell in 1841 he led the opposition in the Lords until 1842. He died at Brocket Hall in Hertfordshire in 1848.