John George Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham, GCB, PC (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.

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.

[4] His mother was Lady Anne Barbara Frances, daughter of George Bussy Villiers, 4th Earl of Jersey.

[10] In Parliament he supported liberal causes, from the defence of Queen Caroline to the removal of political disabilities on Dissenters and Roman Catholics.

In 1838, Lord Durham was named Governor General and High Commissioner for British North America (several North American colonies administered collectively by the Colonial Office, including: the Provinces of Lower Canada and Upper Canada, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and their several Dependencies, Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, Cape Breton and Bermuda).

He lost the support of the Prime Minister, Melbourne, whereupon he published his repudiation and resignation 9 October 1838 and set sail for London on 1 November.

[18] Lord Durham's detailed Report on the Affairs of British North America (London, January 1839) recommended a modified form of responsible government and a legislative union of Upper Canada, Lower Canada and the Maritime Provinces in order to assimilate the French Canadians, whom he considered inferior.

As early as 1844, Lord Durham's intended policy of assimilation faced setbacks, as Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine's party in the House forced de facto reestablishment of French as a language of Parliament.

[21] In one of her occasional political forays, Letitia Elizabeth Landon in her poetical illustration to Sir Thomas Lawrence's portrait, 'The Right Honourable Lord Durham.

Now on an Embassy at the Court of Russia' in Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1833', expresses her hopes that Lord Durham be able to persuade the Russians to return to Poland its lost freedom and sovereignty.