Durham, John George Lambton, Earl of, 1792-1840

John George Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham, (12 April 1792 – 28 July 1840), also known as "Radical Jack" and commonly referred to in Canadian history texts as Lord Durham, was a British Whig statesman, colonial administrator, Governor General and high commissioner of British North America. A leading reformer, Lord Durham played a major role in the passage of the Reform Bill of 1832. He later served as ambassador to Russia. He was a founding member and chairman of the New Zealand Company that played a key role in the colonisation of New Zealand. George Woodcock wrote Lord Durham was "proud, wayward, immensely rich, with romantic good looks and an explosive temper", one of those "natural rebels who turn their rebellious energies to constructive purposes. Both at home and abroad he became a powerful exponent of the early nineteenth-century liberal spirit."