William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, (15 March 1779 – 24 November 1848) 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 in the ways of politics, when she was between the ages of 18 and 21. Historians have concluded that Melbourne does not rank highly 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
William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne residence, Petworth, Lamb was a visitor until the Earl's death; he was called to his bedside when he was dying. Lamb nevertheless stated that Egremont being his father was 'all a lie'. He was educated at Eton, Trinity College, Cambridge and the University of Glasgow. Against the background of the Napoleonic Wars, Lamb served at home as captain (1803) and major (1804) in the Hertfordshire Volunteer Infantry. He succeeded his elder brother as heir to his father's title in 1805, and married Lady Caroline Ponsonby, an Anglo-Irish aristocrat. The following year, he was elected to the British House of Commons