The English statesman Charles Grey, 2d Earl Grey (1764-1845), served as prime minister from 1830 to 1834. He is best known for securing the passage of the Reform Bill of 1832.

Charles Grey was born at Fallodon, Northumberland, on March 13, 1764, the son of Col. Charles Grey (later, 1st Earl Grey) and heir to his father's elder brother, Sir Henry Grey of Howick. The Greys were an ancient Northumberland family, and the young Charles received an aristocratic education at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1786, at the age of 22, he became a member of Parliament for the county, joining the followers of Charles James Fox.

Tall, slim, and aristocratic, with great debating talent, Grey early won a leading place among the exclusive Foxite Whigs. The most prominent among those who founded the Society of the Friends of the People in 1792, Grey deserves most of the credit for attaching his party to the...