Life
1905-2001; [Peter Stanford Francis Aungier Pakenham; fam. & usu. Frank
Packenham, Earl of Longford; Lord Longford]; b. 5th Dec., Pakenham
Castle (now Tullynally); 2nd. son of 5th Earl and gt-gs. of Robert Peel;
nephew of Lord Dunsany; f. died at Gallipoli; ed. Eton, where he showed
Sinn Féin sympathies, and Oxford; took First in Philosophy, Politics
and Economics, sharing digs with Hugh Gaitskell; convert to socialism
and Catholicism; primary school teacher, 1927; leader writer on Daily
Mail; lect. at LSE; worked with boys’ in evenings; research sec.
to Conservative Party; m. Elizabeth Harman, 1931; four sons and four dgs.;
don at Christ Church, Oxford, 1932-45; issued Peace by Ordeal (1935),
based on papers of Robert Barton; heavily beaten up while protesting at
Mosleyite meeting, 1936; joined Labour and became Oxford councillor, 1936;
made unsuccessful mission to Dublin to persuade de Valera to make treaty
ports available to British Navy, 1939; joined Territorial Army, 1939;
invalided out in 1940; converted to Roman Catholicism,
being followed by his wife Elizabeth in a year, who had previously influenced
him to join the Labour Party; asst. to Lord William Beveridge, and worked
on Welfare State report; failed to win Oxford seat for Labour, 1945; made
Baron Pakenham of Cowley and given Labour govt. whip by Attlee; Under-Sec.
of War Ofice, 1946, with responsibility for British zones in Germany and
Austria; damaged face in accident disembarking from plane, Germany, 1947;
Minister of Aviation [q.d.]; succeeded brother to family title as 7th
Earl, 1961, and directly gave passed to his eldest son; chaired Justice
Committee, proposing compensation for victims of crime, 1962; gave RTÉ Thomas Davis Lecture lecture on Anglo-Irish Treaty, 1963; Leader of House
of Lords, 1964; Leader of House of Lords, 1964; Lord Privy Seal, 1965
[var. 1966]; chaired Labour committee on penal reform; Colonial Secretary,
1965-66; resigned leadership of Lords, 1968; issued biog. of de Valera
with Tom O’Neill (1970); fnd. New Horizon Youth Centre; Knight of
the Garter, 1972; published Report on Pornography, 1972; called unremittingly
for parole of Myra Hindley; invited IRA bomber Shane O’Doherty to
tea at House of Lords; suffered death of dg. Catherine in car crash, 1969;
d. 3 Aug.; survived by s. Thomas Pakenham and dg. Antonia Fraser.
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Works
Studies, Peace by Ordeal (1935), and Do. (NEL/Mentor rep.
[q.d.]); The Idea of Punishment (1961); Eamon de Valera,
with Thomas P. O’Neill (Hutchinson 1970); The Life of Jesus
(1974); Abraham Lincoln (1974); John Kennedy (1976); St.
Francis of Assisi (1978); Eleven at No. 10 (1984); autobiography,
Born to Believe (1953), The Grain of Wheat (1974), and Avowed
Intent (1994). See also Longford Report on pornography. Also, The
Anglo-Irish Treaty [Thomas Davis Lecture Lecture] (Cork: Mercier/RTÉ 1963)
Articles (Selected), ‘Labour: The King and I’ [autobiographical feature by Lord Longford], Spectator (25 Nov. 1995), pp.23-24 [ 70 on 5 Dec.; still a socialist; supports Blair]; see also contrib. to Spectator (13 April 1996) [joined Labour Party under the influence of the gospels and his wife, 1936].
The History of Makers, Leaders and Statesmen of the Twentieth Century, ed. Lord Longford & Sir John Wheeler-Bennett (Sidgwick & Jackson 1973), 448pp, ills.; chronologies [by] Christine Nicholls. Contents incl. Clemenceau to Nasser, the essay on Lloyd George being by APJ Taylor. (For extracts on Eamon de Valera, see supra.)
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Criticism
Peter Stanford, Lord Longford: A Life (London: Heinemann 1994),
490pp.; obit., The Irish Times (Sat., 4 Aug. 2001).
Sean MacReamoinn, review of Peter Stanford, Lord Longford: A
Life (1994), in The Irish Times (4 June 1994).
Obituary, Irish Times (Sat., 4 Aug. 2001).
The Irish Times (11 Aug 2001), p.14..
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Notes
Síle de Valera, as Minister of Arts, said: ‘It was
with sadness that I have learne dof the death of Lord Longford, a friend
of my family. He was a decent and a good man who campaigned tirelessly
for human rights. He was a good friend of Ireland.’ (Irish Times,
Sat. 4 Aug. 2001).
Peace by Ordeal (1935) was serialised in the Irish Independent (presum. at reprint date).
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)