Francis Pakenham, 7th Earl of Longford
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Francis Aungier Pakenham, 7th Earl of Longford, 1st Baron Pakenham, Baron Pakenham of Cowley, (5 December 1905 – 3 August 2001), 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 Anglo-Irish people () denotes an ethnic, social and religious grouping who are mostly the descendants and successors of the English Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. They mostly belong to the Anglican Church of Ireland, which was the establis ...
family, the Pakenhams (who became
Earls of Longford Earl of Longford is a title that has been created twice in the Peerage of Ireland. History The title was first bestowed upon Francis Aungier, 3rd Baron Aungier of Longford, in 1677, with remainder to his younger brother Ambrose. He had previ ...
), he was one of the few aristocratic
hereditary peer The hereditary peers form part of the peerage in the United Kingdom. As of September 2022, there are 807 hereditary peers: 29 dukes (including five royal dukes), 34 marquesses, 190 earls, 111 viscounts, and 443 barons (disregarding subsid ...
s ever to serve in a senior capacity within a Labour government. Longford was famed for championing social outcasts and unpopular causes. He is especially notable for his lifelong advocacy of penal reform. Longford visited prisons on a regular basis for nearly 70 years until his death. He advocated for rehabilitation programmes and helped create the modern British parole system in the 1960s following the abolition of the death penalty. His ultimately unsuccessful campaign for the release of Moors murderer
Myra Hindley The Moors murders were carried out by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley between July 1963 and October 1965, in and around Manchester, England. The victims were five children—Pauline Reade, John Kilbride, Keith Bennett, Lesley Ann Downey, and Edward E ...
attracted much media and public controversy. For this work, the
Longford Prize The Longford Prize is an annual award presented in the United Kingdom to an organization, group, or individuals working in the field of social or penal reform. It was established in 2002 in honor of Lord Longford, a lifelong penal reform campai ...
is named after him. It is awarded annually during the
Longford Lecture The Longford Lectures are held annually in November in the circular Assembly Hall of Church House, Westminster. They aim to provide a national platform for a serious contribution to questions of social and penal reform. The Lectures are organised ...
and recognises achievement in the field of penal reform. As a devout Christian determined to translate faith into action, he was known for his bombastic style and his eccentricity. Although a shrewd and influential politician, he was also widely unpopular among Labour leaders, particularly for his lack of ministerial ability, and was moved from cabinet post to cabinet post, never serving more than two years at any one ministry. Labour Prime Minister
Harold Wilson James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, (11 March 1916 – 24 May 1995) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from October 1964 to June 1970, and again from March 1974 to April 1976. He ...
opined that Longford had the mental capacity of a 12-year-old. In 1972, he was made a Knight of the Garter. In the same year, he was appointed to head the group charged with investigating the effects of pornography on society which published the controversial Pornography Report (the Longford Report). He became known as a campaigner against pornography and held the view that it was degrading to both its users and to those who worked in the trade, especially women. Longford was also an outspoken critic of the British press, and once said it was "trembling on the brink of obscenity". Longford was instrumental in
decriminalising homosexuality in the United Kingdom The Sexual Offences Act 1967 is an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom (citation 1967 c. 60). It legalised homosexual acts in England and Wales, on the condition that they were consensual, in private and between two men who had attained th ...
, but was always forthright with his strong moral disapproval of homosexual acts on religious grounds. He opposed furthering
gay rights Rights affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people vary greatly by country or jurisdiction—encompassing everything from the legal recognition of same-sex marriage to the death penalty for homosexuality. Notably, , 3 ...
legislation, including the equalisation of the age of consent, and also supported the passage of Section 28.


Background and education

Born into an
Anglo-Irish Anglo-Irish people () denotes an ethnic, social and religious grouping who are mostly the descendants and successors of the English Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. They mostly belong to the Anglican Church of Ireland, which was the establis ...
aristocratic family, he was the second son of Thomas Pakenham, 5th Earl of Longford in the Peerage of Ireland. He was educated at Eton College and
New College, Oxford New College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1379 by William of Wykeham in conjunction with Winchester College as its feeder school, New College is one of the oldest colleges at th ...
, where as an undergraduate he was a member of the
Bullingdon Club The Bullingdon Club is a private all-male dining club for Oxford University students. It is known for its wealthy members, grand banquets, and bad behaviour, including vandalism of restaurants and students' rooms. The club is known to select it ...
. Despite having failed to be awarded a scholarship, he graduated with a first-class honours degree in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics and became a don at Christ Church.


Political career

After a disastrous spell in stockbroking with Buckmaster & Moore, in 1931 the 25-year-old Pakenham joined the Conservative Research Department where he developed education policy for the
Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...
. Elizabeth persuaded him to become a socialist. They were married on 3 November 1931 and had eight children. In 1940, only a few months after the onset of the Second World War, he suffered a nervous breakdown and was invalided out of the armed forces. The same year, he became a Roman Catholic. His wife was initially dismayed by this, for she had been brought up a Unitarian and associated the Church of Rome with
reactionary politics In political science, a reactionary or a reactionist is a person who holds political views that favor a return to the ''status quo ante'', the previous political state of society, which that person believes possessed positive characteristics abse ...
, but in 1946 she joined the same church. Pakenham embarked on a political career. In July 1945 he contested Oxford against the sitting Conservative member, Quintin Hogg, but was defeated by nearly 3,000 votes. In October of that year he was created Baron Pakenham, of Cowley in the
City of Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the Un ...
, in the
Peerage of the United Kingdom The Peerage of the United Kingdom is one of the five Peerages in the United Kingdom. It comprises most peerages created in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland after the Acts of Union 1800, Acts of Union in 1801, when it replaced the ...
, by the Labour government of
Clement Attlee Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, (3 January 18838 October 1967) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955. He was Deputy Prime Mini ...
, and took his seat in the House of Lords as one of the few Labour peers. He was immediately appointed a
Lord-in-waiting Lords-in-waiting (male) or baronesses-in-waiting (female) are peers who hold office in the Royal Household of the sovereign of the United Kingdom. In the official Court Circular they are styled "Lord in Waiting" or "Baroness in Waiting" (without ...
by Attlee. In 1947, he was appointed deputy Foreign Secretary, outside the cabinet, with special responsibility for the British zone in occupied Germany. He made headlines by telling German audiences that the British people forgave them for what had happened in the war; at his death, the Lord Bishop of Birmingham remarked that West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer was supposed to have "counted him as one of the founders of the Federal Republic". In May 1948, he was moved to the lower-profile role of Minister of Civil Aviation and was sworn of the
Privy Council A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mon ...
in June of that year. He continued in this post until May 1951. From May until the fall of the administration in October 1951, he was First Lord of the Admiralty. In 1961, Pakenham inherited from his brother the earldom of Longford in the Peerage of Ireland and from then onward was generally known to the public as ''Lord Longford''. When Labour returned to power in October 1964 under
Harold Wilson James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, (11 March 1916 – 24 May 1995) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from October 1964 to June 1970, and again from March 1974 to April 1976. He ...
, Longford was appointed
Lord Privy Seal The Lord Privy Seal (or, more formally, the Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal) is the fifth of the Great Officers of State (United Kingdom), Great Officers of State in the United Kingdom, ranking beneath the Lord President of the Council and abov ...
and Leader of the House of Lords, despite the fact that Wilson had little respect for him. In December 1965 he became
Secretary of State for the Colonies The secretary of state for the colonies or colonial secretary was the Cabinet of the United Kingdom, British Cabinet government minister, minister in charge of managing the United Kingdom's various British Empire, colonial dependencies. Histor ...
, continuing as Leader of the House of Lords. After only four months at the Colonial Office, he was removed from the post for failing to master his brief, and again became Lord Privy Seal in April 1966. Wilson often talked about sacking Longford from his government, which is believed by some to have led to Longford's resignation as Lord Privy Seal and Leader of the House of Lords in January 1968 – though the actual occasion of his resignation was the failure of Education Secretary
Patrick Gordon Walker Patrick Chrestien Gordon Walker, Baron Gordon-Walker, (7 April 1907 – 2 December 1980) was a British Labour Party politician. He was a Member of Parliament for nearly thirty years, and served twice as a Cabinet Minister. He lost his Smethwi ...
to agree to the raising of the school-leaving age. In 1972 he was created a Knight of the Garter.


Penal reform

Longford began visiting prisoners in the 1930s when he was a city councillor in Oxford, and continued to do so every week, all around the country, until shortly before his death in 2001. Among the thousands he befriended and helped were a small number of individuals who had committed the most notorious crimes, including child murderer
Myra Hindley The Moors murders were carried out by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley between July 1963 and October 1965, in and around Manchester, England. The victims were five children—Pauline Reade, John Kilbride, Keith Bennett, Lesley Ann Downey, and Edward E ...
. In 1956, he set up New Bridge Foundation, an organisation that aimed to help prisoners stay in touch with society and integrate them back into it. New Bridge set up ''
Inside Time ''Inside Time'' is the national newspaper for prisoners and detainees distributed throughout the prison estate of the United Kingdom including Immigration Removal Centres and special hospitals. The newspaper launched in 1990 and is published ...
'' in 1990, the only national newspaper for the UK's prison population. , novelist and journalist
Rachel Billington Lady Rachel Mary Billington (''née'' Pakenham; born 11 May 1942) is a British author, the third daughter of the 7th Earl and Countess of Longford; both parents were writers, as was her aunt, Christine Longford. Career Billington worked in ...
, Longford's daughter, worked at the title one day a week. Longford organised many debates on prison reform in the House of Lords from the 1950s onward, and in 1963 chaired the commission whose report recommended reform in sentencing policy and the establishment of a parole system. Longford was a leading figure in the
Nationwide Festival of Light The Nationwide Festival of Light was a short-lived grassroots movement formed by British Christians concerned about the rise of the permissive society and social changes in English society by the late 1960s. The movement was opposed to what t ...
of 1971, protesting against the commercial exploitation of sex and violence, and advocating the teaching of Christ as the key to recovering moral stability in the nation. His anti-pornography campaigning made him the subject of derision and he was labelled by the press as ''Lord Porn'' when he and former prison doctor Christine Temple-Saville set out on a wide-ranging tour of sex industry establishments in the early 1970s to compile a self-funded report. The press made much of his visits to strip clubs in Copenhagen. Peter Stanford wrote in '' The Guardian''s obituary of Longford that in the late 1980s, the peer was contacted by the solicitor for a young Dutchman, convicted of a drugs offence, sent to Albany prison on the Isle of Wight, who was suffering from
AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual m ...
and had been cut off by his family. Longford was the only person to visit the dying man, a gesture repeated in countless episodes that never made headlines, but which brought succour and relief.


Myra Hindley

He gained a reputation for eccentricity, becoming known for his efforts to rehabilitate offenders and in particular campaigning for the parole and release from prison of the Moors murderer Myra Hindley, who had been jailed for life along with Ian Brady in 1966 for the Moors Murders. Longford's support for Hindley led to the soubriquet ''Lord Wrongford'' from the tabloid press, which largely opposed Hindley being released from prison. It also coincided with Longford's contact with Hindley becoming public knowledge in 1972, when "Lord Porn" was in the midst of the debacle of a much-lampooned anti-pornography crusade against "indecency", giving rise to more allegations of hypocrisy than had already resulted from his tours of sex clubs. In 1977, 11 years after Hindley was convicted of two murders and being an accessory to a third murder, Longford appeared on television and spoke openly of his belief that Hindley should now be considered for parole as she had shown clear signs of progress in prison and now served long enough for the Parole Board to assess her suitability for release from prison. He also supported Hindley's claims that her role in the Moors Murders was merely that of an unwilling accessory, rather than an active participant, and that she had only taken part due to Brady's abuse and threats. These claims were aired in the inaugural episode of '' Brass Tacks'', which featured arguments for and against Hindley being considered for parole. Ann West, the mother of Lesley Ann Downey, spoke of her determination that Hindley should never be released, and openly told viewers that she would kill Hindley if she ever was released. In 1985, he condemned the Parole Board's decision not to consider Hindley's release for another five years as "barbaric". His campaign for Hindley continued even after she admitted to two more murders in 1986, which further strengthened media and public opinion that any reports of progress by Hindley in prison were nothing more than a ploy to boost her chances of gaining release from prison. In 1990, Home Secretary David Waddington ruled that "life should mean life" for Hindley, who had been told by earlier Home Secretaries and High Court judges that she would have to serve a minimum of 25 and then 30 years before being considered for parole. Hindley was not informed of the decision until December 1994, and Longford later expressed his "disgust" at this ruling, comparing her imprisonment to that of Jews in Nazi Germany. By this time Hindley, who had initially thought that having "friends in high places" could only help her cause, had cut off all contact and communication with him, now considering him a liability whose "campaigning" was little more than publicity-seeking on his own behalf. The next three Home Secretaries all agreed with Waddington's ruling. Hindley appealed against her whole life tariff in the High Court in December 1997, November 1998 and March 2000, but each appeal was rejected. Longford maintained that she was a changed woman who was no longer a threat to society, and had qualified for parole. He regularly commented, along with several other Hindley supporters, that she was a " political prisoner" who was being kept in prison for votes, to serve the interests of a succession of Home Secretaries and their respective governments. Home Office files would later reveal that in 1975 Longford had also lobbied various government ministers, including the Home Secretary Roy Jenkins, on Brady's behalf, as well. This resulted in Brady obtaining special treatment while remaining in the prison hospital, rather than being returned to the segregation unit. This gave him access to adolescent "youth custody" inmates; he was only removed from this privileged situation in 1982, after he was accused by several underage inmates of sexual assault. In March 1996, Longford backed up Hindley's claim in an Oxford University magazine that she was still in prison so that the Conservative government – trailing in the opinion polls since the autumn of 1992 – would win more votes. This claim was met with anger by the mothers of two of the Moors Murders victims, including Ann West, who remained at the centre of the campaign to ensure that Hindley was never released, and once again vowed to kill Hindley if she was set free. Longford regularly condemned the media for "manipulating" West and feeding her desire for revenge, being particularly critical of '' The Sun'' newspaper for its "exploitation" of West — referring to her numerous television and newspaper interviews in which she argued against any suggestion of Hindley ever being paroled, often threatening to kill her if she was ever set free. In 1986, Longford reportedly told West that unless she forgave Hindley and Brady, she would not go to
heaven Heaven or the heavens, is a common religious cosmological or transcendent supernatural place where beings such as deities, angels, souls, saints, or venerated ancestors are said to originate, be enthroned, or reside. According to the belie ...
when she died. He also commented that he was "tremendously sorry for her, but letting her decide Myra's fate would be ludicrous". Hindley died in November 2002, having never been paroled. The story of Longford's campaign to free Hindley was told in the Channel 4 film ''
Longford Longford () is the county town of County Longford in Ireland. It has a population of 10,008 according to the 2016 census. It is the biggest town in the county and about one third of the county's population lives there. Longford lies at the meet ...
'' in 2006. Longford was played by
Jim Broadbent James Broadbent (born 24 May 1949) is an English actor. He won an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for his supporting role as John Bayley in the feature film ''Iris'' (2001), as well as winning a BAFTA TV Award and a Golden Globe for hi ...
(who won a BAFTA for his role) and Hindley was played by Samantha Morton.


Decriminalisation of homosexuality

In 1956, Longford launched the first Parliamentary debate in support of the Wolfenden Report, which recommended the decriminalisation of homosexuality. He had been a staunch public supporter of
Lord Montagu Ralph Douglas-Scott-Montagu, 4th Baron Montagu of Beaulieu (born 13 March 1961) is an English peer and owner of the Beaulieu Estate, home of the National Motor Museum. Early life and family Lord Montagu is the son of Edward Douglas-Scott-Montag ...
and his lover
Peter Wildeblood Peter Wildeblood (19 May 1923 – 14 November 1999) was an Anglo-Canadian journalist, novelist, playwright and gay rights campaigner. He was one of the first men in the UK publicly to declare his homosexuality. Early life Peter Wildeblood was ...
after the two were jailed for breaking anti-gay laws in the early 1950s, and visited them regularly in prison. In the 1960s, taking the lead in the decriminalisation of homosexuality in England and Wales, he still held the view that stated that homosexuality was "nauseating" and that, regardless of any change in the law, it was "utterly wrongful". He was of the belief that homosexuality was something that could be "taught". In the mid-1980s, Longford was a vocal supporter of the introduction of Section 28 by Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government and, during the Parliamentary debates, he stated his opinion that homosexuals are "handicapped people". Section 28 became law in 1988, but Longford continued to support it and fought against its repeal when the new
Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...
government came to power in 1997. Despite his efforts, he was unsuccessful and Section 28 was repealed in 2003. Longford's highly publicised condemnation of homosexuality in the late 1980s made him a target of comedian Julian Clary, who often
satirised Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming or ...
him in his stage shows and television appearances. Longford also opposed the Labour government's plans to equalise the
age of consent The age of consent is the age at which a person is considered to be legally competent to consent to sexual acts. Consequently, an adult who engages in sexual activity with a person younger than the age of consent is unable to legally claim ...
for gay men (at that time 18) with that of heterosexual men (16), and in a 1998 House of Lords debate he remarked that:
...if someone seduced my daughter, it would be damaging and horrifying but not fatal. She would recover, marry and have lots of children... On the other hand, if some elderly, or not so elderly, schoolmaster seduced one of my sons and taught him to be a homosexual, he would ruin him for life. That is the fundamental distinction.
The age of consent for gay men was reduced to 16 in 2000.


House of Lords reforms (1999)

Under the House of Lords Act 1999, the majority of
hereditary peer The hereditary peers form part of the peerage in the United Kingdom. As of September 2022, there are 807 hereditary peers: 29 dukes (including five royal dukes), 34 marquesses, 190 earls, 111 viscounts, and 443 barons (disregarding subsid ...
s lost the privilege of a seat and right to vote in the House of Lords. However, Longford was one of four individuals who were hereditary peers of the first creation (in his case 1st Baron Pakenham). As such, he was created a
life peer In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. In modern times, life peerages, always created at the rank of baron, are created under the Life Peerages ...
, and remained in the Lords as Baron Pakenham of Cowley, of Cowley in the County of Oxfordshire. At the age of 93, he became the second-oldest person to be granted a peerage (after Lord Maenan).


Writings

Known for his interest in Irish history, he wrote a number of books on the topic. ''Peace By Ordeal: An Account from First-Hand Sources of the Negotiation and Signature of the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921'', published in 1935, is arguably his best-known work. It documents the negotiations of the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 between Irish and British representatives. His account uses primary sources from the time, many however anonymous. Commentators differ widely on its merits and reliability. Longford came greatly to admire Éamon de Valera and was chosen as the co-author of his official biography ''Éamon de Valera'', which was published in 1970, co-written with
Thomas P. O'Neill Thomas Phillip "Tip" O'Neill Jr. (December 9, 1912 – January 5, 1994) was an American politician who served as the List of speakers of the United States House of Representatives, 47th speaker of the United States House of Representatives fro ...
. He campaigned for decades to have the
Hugh Lane Sir Hugh Percy Lane (9 November 1875 – 7 May 1915) was an Irish art dealer, collector and gallery director. He is best known for establishing Dublin's Municipal Gallery of Modern Art (the first known public gallery of modern art in the w ...
bequest pictures restored to Dublin, and with Lord Moyne and Sir Denis Mahon, brokered a compromise-sharing agreement in 1959.


Personal life

At Oxford, Longford met his wife, Elizabeth Harman, an undergraduate at
Lady Margaret Hall Lady Margaret Hall (LMH) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England, located on the banks of the River Cherwell at Norham Gardens in north Oxford and adjacent to the University Parks. The college is more formall ...
. Their marriage produced four sons and four daughters, followed by 26 grandchildren and 18 great-grandchildren. * 1. Lady Antonia Margaret Caroline Pakenham (b. 27 August 1932), writer; previously married to Hugh Fraser and had six children, was married to
Harold Pinter Harold Pinter (; 10 October 1930 â€“ 24 December 2008) was a British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. A Nobel Prize winner, Pinter was one of the most influential modern British dramatists with a writing career that spanne ...
until his death * 2. Thomas Frank Dermot Pakenham, 8th Earl of Longford (b. 14 August 1933), historian; married with issue (four children) * 3. Hon. Patrick Maurice Pakenham (17 April 1937 – 8 June 2005), barrister; married Mary Plummer, three children * 4. Judith Elizabeth Pakenham (14 August 1940 – 18 September 2018), writer; previously married to Alexander John Kazantzis, two children * 5. Lady Rachel Mary Pakenham (b. 11 April 1942), writer; married to director
Kevin Billington Kevin Billington (12 June 1934 – 13 December 2021) was a British film director, who worked in the theatre, film and television from the 1960s. Biography The son of a factory worker,Fred Hauptfuhre''People'', 13:12, 24 March 1980 and educated ...
, four children * 6. Hon. Sir Michael Aidan Pakenham (b. 3 November 1943), diplomat; married to Meta Landreth Doak, two children * 7. Lady Catherine Rose Pakenham (28 February 1946 – 11 August 1969), journalist; died in a car accident, unmarried. * 8. Hon. Kevin John Toussaint Pakenham (1 November 1947 – 19 July 2020), banker; married to Ruth Jackson, then Claire Hoare, then Ronke Phillips; six children. Longford died in August 2001 at the age of 95, and was cremated at Mortlake Crematorium. His wife,
Elizabeth Pakenham, Countess of Longford Elizabeth Pakenham, Countess of Longford, (''née'' Harman; 30 August 1906 – 23 October 2002), 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 ...
, died in October 2002 at the age of 96. She was the author of ''Victoria R.I.'' (1964), a biography of Queen Victoria, published in the US as ''Born to Succeed''. She also wrote a two-volume biography of the Duke of Wellington, and a volume of memoirs, ''The Pebbled Shore''. She stood for Parliament as Labour candidate for
Cheltenham Cheltenham (), also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a spa town and borough on the edge of the Cotswolds in the county of Gloucestershire, England. Cheltenham became known as a health and holiday spa town resort, following the discovery of mineral s ...
in the 1935 general election and for Oxford in
1950 Events January * January 1 – The International Police Association (IPA) – the largest police organization in the world – is formed. * January 5 – 1950 Sverdlovsk plane crash, Sverdlovsk plane crash: ''Aeroflot'' Lisunov Li-2 cr ...
. The then Prime Minister, Tony Blair, said of Longford after his death: "He was a great man of passionate integrity and humanity, and a great reformer committed to modernising the law, while also caring deeply for individuals".


See also

*
The Longford Lectures The Longford Lectures are held annually in November in the circular Assembly Hall of Church House, Westminster. They aim to provide a national platform for a serious contribution to questions of social and penal reform. The Lectures are organised ...
*
The Longford Prize The Longford Prize is an annual award presented in the United Kingdom to an organization, group, or individuals working in the field of social or penal reform. It was established in 2002 in honor of Lord Longford, a lifelong penal reform campai ...


References


Films about Lord Longford

*''
Longford Longford () is the county town of County Longford in Ireland. It has a population of 10,008 according to the 2016 census. It is the biggest town in the county and about one third of the county's population lives there. Longford lies at the meet ...
'' (2006): Longford's efforts to obtain parole for Moors murderer
Myra Hindley The Moors murders were carried out by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley between July 1963 and October 1965, in and around Manchester, England. The victims were five children—Pauline Reade, John Kilbride, Keith Bennett, Lesley Ann Downey, and Edward E ...
were dramatised in a Channel 4 film, with Longford portrayed by
Jim Broadbent James Broadbent (born 24 May 1949) is an English actor. He won an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for his supporting role as John Bayley in the feature film ''Iris'' (2001), as well as winning a BAFTA TV Award and a Golden Globe for hi ...
, Samantha Morton as
Myra Hindley The Moors murders were carried out by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley between July 1963 and October 1965, in and around Manchester, England. The victims were five children—Pauline Reade, John Kilbride, Keith Bennett, Lesley Ann Downey, and Edward E ...
, Lindsay Duncan as Lady Longford and Andy Serkis as Ian Brady.


Books about Lord Longford

* *
Fraser, Antonia Lady Antonia Margaret Caroline Fraser, (' Pakenham; born 27 August 1932) is a British author of history, novels, biographies and detective fiction. She is the widow of the 2005 Nobel Laureate in Literature, Harold Pinter (1930–2008), and p ...
(2015), ''My History: A Memoir of Growing Up'', New York: Doubleday. ccount, both personal and political, by a daughter of Pakenham. 


External links

*
Longford TrustNew Bridge Foundation
*
Campaigner Lord Longford dies
. BBC News article dated Friday, 3 August 2001
Lord Longford: Aristocratic moral crusader
. BBC News obituary dated Friday, 3 August 2001
Tributes to humanist peer
. BBC News article dated Friday, 3 August 2001

''Guardian'' obituary by Peter Stanford dated Monday, 6 August 2001

House of Lords Minute of Proceedings, 17 November 1999

*
Portrait of Frank Pakenham in the UK Parliamentary Collections
{{DEFAULTSORT:Longford, Frank Pakenham, 7th Earl Of 1905 births 2001 deaths British military personnel of World War II Alumni of New College, Oxford Anti-pornography activists British Secretaries of State British reformers Chancellors of the Duchy of Lancaster Conservative Party (UK) politicians Converts to Roman Catholicism Earls of Longford English Roman Catholics Fellows of Christ Church, Oxford First Lords of the Admiralty Knights Commander of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Knights of the Garter Labour Party (UK) hereditary peers Labour Party (UK) life peers Leaders of the House of Lords Lords Privy Seal Members of the Fabian Society Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Ministers in the Attlee governments, 1945–1951 Ministers in the Wilson governments, 1964–1970 Frank People educated at Eton College Prison reformers Secretaries of State for the Colonies Barons created by George VI Life peers created by Elizabeth II Bullingdon Club members Pakenham