The Right Honourable The Earl of Longford | |
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Earl of Longford | |
Tenure | 3 August 2001 – present |
Predecessor | Frank Longford |
Born | Thomas Francis Dermot Pakenham 14 August 1933 |
Spouse(s) | Valerie Susan Scott (after 1964) |
Issue | 4 |
Parents | The 7th Earl of Longford Elizabeth Harman |
Thomas Francis Dermot Pakenham, 8th Earl of Longford (born 14 August 1933), known simply as Thomas Pakenham, is an Anglo-Irish historian and arborist who has written several prize-winning books on the diverse subjects of African history, Victorian and post-Victorian British history, and trees.
Pakenham is the eldest son of the 7th Earl of Longford, a Labour government minister, and the author Elizabeth Longford. [1]
He has seven siblings, among them the award-winning historian and biographer Lady Antonia Fraser (who is the widow of playwright Harold Pinter); Lady Rachel Billington, also a writer (and the widow of the director Kevin Billington); Lady Judith Kazantzis, a poet; and The Hon. Kevin Pakenham, [2] who worked in the City of London. He is also a cousin of the former Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman.
Thomas Pakenham does not use his title of Earl of Longford and before succeeding his father did not use his courtesy title. However, he has not disclaimed his British titles of Baron Silchester and Baron Pakenham under the Peerage Act 1963, and his Irish earldom cannot be disclaimed, as it is not covered by the Act.
Following the House of Lords Act 1999 he is not entitled, as a hereditary peer, to sit in the House of Lords. His father was created a life peer in addition to his hereditary titles in order to be able to retain his seat in the upper house.
In 1964 Pakenham married Valerie Susan McNair Scott, daughter of Major Ronald Guthrie McNair Scott and the Hon. Mary Cecilia Berry, daughter of William Berry, 1st Viscount Camrose. They have four children: [1]
Valerie Pakenham died on 22 January 2023 at the age of 83. [3]
Pakenham was educated at Belvedere College, a private Jesuit school in Dublin, and Magdalen College, Oxford. After graduating in 1955 he travelled around Ethiopia, a journey that he described in his first book, The Mountains of Rasselas (1959). After returning to Britain he worked on the editorial staff of the Times Educational Supplement , and later for The Sunday Telegraph and The Observer . He now divides his time between London and County Westmeath, Ireland, where he is the Chairman of the Irish Tree Society and honorary custodian of Tullynally Castle.
Pakenham owned Longford Greyhound Stadium until 1966, when he sold it to Longford Sports Ltd. [4]
Francis Aungier Pakenham, 7th Earl of Longford,, known to his family as Frank Longford and styled Lord Pakenham from 1945 to 1961, was a British politician and social reformer. A member of the Labour Party, he was one of its longest-serving politicians. He held cabinet positions on several occasions between 1947 and 1968. Longford was politically active until his death in 2001. A member of an old, landed Anglo-Irish family, the Pakenhams, he was one of the few aristocratic hereditary peers ever to serve in a senior capacity within a Labour government.
Elizabeth Pakenham, Countess of Longford,, better known as Elizabeth Longford, was a British historian. She was a member of the Royal Society of Literature and was on the board of trustees of the National Portrait Gallery in London. She is best known as a historian, especially for her biographies of 19th-century figures including Queen Victoria (1964), Lord Byron (1976) and the Duke of Wellington (1969).
Earl of Longford is a title that has been created twice in the Peerage of Ireland.
Brigadier-General Thomas Pakenham, 5th Earl of Longford, KP, MVO, known as Lord Silchester until 1887, was an Irish peer and soldier.
Castlepollard is a village in north County Westmeath, Republic of Ireland. It lies west of Lough Lene and northeast of Lough Derravaragh and Mullingar.
Events in the year 1902 in Ireland.
Silchester is a village and civil parish about 5 miles (8 km) north of Basingstoke in Hampshire. It is adjacent to the county boundary with Berkshire and about 9 miles (14 km) south-west of Reading.
Tullynally Castle, also known as Pakenham Hall, is a country house situated some 2 km from Castlepollard on the Coole village road in County Westmeath, Ireland. The Gothic-style building has over 120 rooms and has been home to the Pakenham family for over 350 years.
General William Lygon Pakenham, 4th Earl of Longford, styled The Honourable William Pakenham before 1860, was an Anglo-Irish soldier and Conservative politician.
Francis Johnston was an Anglo/Irish architect, best known for building the General Post Office (GPO) on O'Connell Street, Dublin.
Edward Arthur Henry Pakenham, 6th Earl of Longford was an Irish peer, politician, and littérateur. Also known as Eamon de Longphort, he was a member of the fifth Seanad Éireann, the upper house of the Irish Parliament, in the 1940s.
Thomas Pakenham, 2nd Earl of Longford,, known as The Lord Longford between 1792 and 1794, was an Anglo-Irish peer.
Thomas Pakenham, 1st Baron Longford was an Irish peer and politician.
Edward Michael Pakenham, 2nd Baron Longford was an Anglo-Irish naval officer, peer and landowner.
Christine Longford, Countess of Longford was a playwright. Following her parents' separation her mother took in lodgers while Christine attended Oxford Wells High School. She won a scholarship to study Classics at Somerville College, Oxford. While there she met and in 1925 married Edward Pakenham, later 6th Earl of Longford. She moved to Ireland with her husband in 1925. They divided their time between Dublin and Pakenham Hall, now Tullynally Castle, in Castlepollard, County Westmeath.
Elizabeth Pakenham, 1st Countess of Longford, formerly Elizabeth Cuffe, was an Irish noblewoman. She was the wife of Thomas Pakenham, 1st Baron Longford, the mother of Edward Michael Pakenham, 2nd Baron Longford, and the grandmother of Thomas Pakenham, 2nd Earl of Longford.
Lady Mary Katherine Clive was a British writer and historian, known for her memoirs of her family and her time as a debutante.
Lieutenant-General Sir Hercules Robert Pakenham was a British Army officer who served as aide-de-camp to William IV of the United Kingdom.
Lieutenant-Colonel Edward William Pakenham was an Irish soldier and Conservative Party politician from County Antrim. He served for two years as a Member of Parliament (MP), until his death in the Crimean War.
Hercules Langford Rowley PC was an Irish politician and landowner.