Editing Frank Pakenham, 7th Earl of Longford

{{Short description|British politician and social reformer (1905–2001)}}
{{Redirect|Lord Longford|other people known as Lord Longford|Earl of Longford}}
{{Use British English|date=May 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2020}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix    = [[The Right Honourable]]
| name                = The Earl of Longford
| honorific-suffix    = [[Order of the Garter|KG]] [[Privy Council (United Kingdom)|PC]]
| image               = Lord Longford 4 Allan Warren.jpg
| imagesize           = 
| caption             = Longford in 1974
<!-- -->| office3             = [[Secretary of State for the Colonies]]
| term_start3         = 23 December 1965
| term_end3           = 6 April 1966
| primeminister3      = [[Harold Wilson]]
| predecessor3        = [[Anthony Greenwood]]
| successor3          = [[Frederick Lee, Baron Lee of Newton|Frederick Lee]]
| office              = [[Leader of the House of Lords]]
| term_start          = 18 October 1964
| term_end            = 16 January 1968
| primeminister       = [[Harold Wilson]]
| predecessor         = [[The Lord Carrington]]
| successor           = [[The Lord Shackleton]]
| office1             = [[Lord Privy Seal|Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal]]
| term_start1         = 6 April 1966
| term_end1           = 16 January 1968
| primeminister1      = [[Harold Wilson]]
| predecessor1        = [[Sir Frank Soskice]]
| successor1          = [[The Lord Shackleton]]
| term_start2         = 18 October 1964
| term_end2           = 23 December 1965
| primeminister2      = [[Harold Wilson]]
| predecessor2        = [[Selwyn Lloyd]]
| successor2          = [[Sir Frank Soskice]]
| office4             = [[First Lord of the Admiralty]]
| term_start4         = 24 May 1951
| term_end4           = 13 October 1951
| primeminister4      = [[Clement Attlee]]
| predecessor4        = [[George Hall, 1st Viscount Hall|The Viscount Hall]]
| successor4          = [[James Thomas, 1st Viscount Cilcennin|James Thomas]]
| office5             = [[Secretary of State for Transport|Minister of Civil Aviation]]
| term_start5         = 31 May 1948
| term_end5           = 1 June 1951
| primeminister5      = [[Clement Attlee]]
| predecessor5        = [[Harry Nathan, 1st Baron Nathan|The Lord Nathan]]
| successor5          = [[David Rees-Williams, 1st Baron Ogmore|The Lord Ogmore]]
| office6             = [[Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster]]<br/ >{{nobold|''(Deputy Foreign Secretary)''}}
| term_start6         = 17 April 1947
| term_end6           = 31 May 1948
| primeminister6      = [[Clement Attlee]]
| predecessor6        = [[John Hynd]]
| successor6          = [[Hugh Dalton]]
| office7             = [[Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for War]]
| term_start7         = 4 October 1946
| term_end7           = 17 April 1947
| primeminister7      = [[Clement Attlee]]
| predecessor7        = [[Harry Nathan, 1st Baron Nathan|The Lord Nathan]]
| successor7          = [[John Freeman (British politician)|John Freeman]]
| office8             = [[Lord-in-waiting]]<br>[[Government Whip]]
| primeminister8      = [[Clement Attlee]]
| term_start8         = 14 October 1945
| term_end8           = 4 October 1946
| predecessor8        = [[Robert Munro, 1st Baron Alness|The Lord Alness]]
| successor8          = [[Robert Chorley, 1st Baron Chorley|The Lord Chorley]]
| office9          = [[Member of the House of Lords]]
| status9          = [[Lord Temporal]]
| term_label9      = as a hereditary peer
| term_start9      = 16 October 1945
| term_end9        = 11 November 1999
| predecessor9     = ''Peerage created'' <ref>Inherited the [[Earl of Longford|Earldom of Longford]] on 4 February 1961.</ref>
| successor9       = [[House of Lords Act 1999|Seat abolished]]
| term_label10     = as a [[life peer]]
| term_start10     = 17 November 1999
| term_end10       = 3 August 2001
| 1blankname10     = 
| 1namedata10      = 
| predecessor10    = 
| successor10      = 
<!-- -->| birth_date          = {{birth date|df=yes|1905|12|5}}
| birth_place         = London, England
| death_date          = {{Death date and age|df=y|2001|8|3|1905|12|5}}
| death_place         = London, England
| nationality         = [[British people|British]]
| party               = [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]]
| alma_mater          = [[New College, Oxford]]
| spouse              = {{marriage|[[Elizabeth Pakenham, Countess of Longford|Elizabeth Harman]]|1931}}
| children            = 8, including [[Antonia Fraser|Antonia]], [[Thomas Pakenham (historian)|Thomas]], [[Judith Kazantzis|Judith]], [[Rachel Billington|Rachel]], and [[Michael Pakenham|Michael]]
| parents             = [[Thomas Pakenham, 5th Earl of Longford]]<br/>Lady Mary Child-Villiers
| birth_name          = Francis Aungier Pakenham
}}

'''Francis Aungier Pakenham, 7th Earl of Longford''' (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 (UK)|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 (who became [[Earls of Longford]]), he was one of the few aristocratic [[hereditary peer]]s ever to serve in a senior capacity within a Labour government. 

Longford was famed for championing social outcasts and unpopular causes.<ref>{{cite news |last=Hoge |first=Warren |title=Lord Longford, Champion of Eccentric Causes, Dies at 95 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/06/world/lord-longford-champion-of-eccentric-causes-dies-at-95.html |access-date=9 March 2015 |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=6 August 2001}}</ref> 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 Murders|Moors murderer]] [[Myra Hindley]] attracted much media and public controversy. For this work, the [[Longford Prize]] is named after him. It is awarded annually during the [[Longford Lecture]] and recognises achievement in the field of penal reform.<ref name="Longford Prize">{{cite web |url=http://www.longfordtrust.org/the-longford-prize/ |title=Longford Prize |work=longfordtrust.org}}</ref>

As a devout Christian determined to translate faith into action, he was known for his bombastic style and his eccentricity.<ref name="peterstanford">{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2001/aug/06/guardianobituaries.prisonsandprobation |title=Obituary: Lord Longford |last=Stanford |first=Peter |author-link=Peter Stanford |work=[[The Guardian]] |location=London}}</ref> 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]] opined that Longford had the mental capacity of a 12-year-old.<ref name="Guardian">{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2001/aug/06/guardianobituaries.prisonsandprobation |title=Lord Longford |last=Stanford |first=Peter |date=6 August 2001 |work=The Guardian |location=London |access-date=23 October 2013}}</ref>

In 1972, he was made a [[Knight of the Garter|Knight Companion 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).<ref name="Hansard Longford report">{{Cite web|url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/1972/nov/29/pornography-the-longford-report|title = PORNOGRAPHY: THE LONGFORD REPORT (Hansard, 29 November 1972)}}</ref><ref name="Spectator">{{Cite web|url=http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/23rd-september-1972/7/the-longford-report|title = The Longford Report » 23 Sep 1972 » the Spectator Archive}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/6063198.stm |date=19 October 2006 |title=The saint and the sinner |last=Walker |first=Andrew |work=[[BBC News]]}}</ref> Longford was also an outspoken critic of the British press, and once said it was "trembling on the brink of obscenity".<ref name="cnn.com">{{cite news |url=http://edition.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/europe/08/03/longford.obit/ |title=Campaigning Lord Longford dies |date=3 August 2001 |work=cnn.com}}</ref>

Longford was instrumental in [[decriminalising homosexuality in the United Kingdom]], but was always forthright with his strong moral disapproval of homosexual acts on religious grounds.<ref>{{cite book |last=Aitken |first=Jonathan |title=Heroes and Contemporaries |date=2007 |publisher=Continuum}}</ref><ref name="dangerous">{{cite news |last=Stanford |first=Peter |title=Dangerous Liaison |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/3598530/A-do-gooder-to-himself-too.html |work=[[The Daily Telegraph|The Telegraph]] |date=7 July 2003}}</ref> He opposed furthering [[gay rights]] legislation, including the [[LGBT rights in the United Kingdom#Equal age of consent|equalisation of the age of consent]], and also supported the passage of [[Section 28]].<ref name="dangerous"/><ref>{{cite book |last=Smith |first=Anna Marie |title=New Right Discourse on Race and Sexuality: Britain, 1968–1990 |date=1994 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |page=[https://archive.org/details/newrightdiscours0000smit/page/205 205] |url=https://archive.org/details/newrightdiscours0000smit |url-access=registration |quote=Earl of Longford homosexuality.}}</ref>

==Background and education==
Born in London to an [[Anglo-Irish]] aristocratic family, he was the second son of [[Thomas Pakenham, 5th Earl of Longford]] in the [[Peerage of Ireland]].<ref name = Johnson>{{cite ODNB|doi = 10.1093/ref:odnb/76133|title = Pakenham, Francis Aungier [Frank], first Baron Pakenham and seventh earl of Longford (1905–2001), politician, writer, and philanthropist|year = 2011|last = Johnson|first = Paul}}</ref> He was educated at [[Eton College]] and [[New College, Oxford]],<ref name = Johnson/> where as an undergraduate he was a member of the [[Bullingdon Club]]. He graduated with a [[British undergraduate degree classification|first-class honours]] degree in [[Philosophy, Politics, and Economics]] and became a [[University don|don]] at [[Christ Church, Oxford|Christ Church]].

==Political career==
[[File:Elizabeth Longford wedding.jpg|thumb|left|200px|Pakenham at his wedding in 1931]]
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 (UK)|Conservative Party]]. His wife Elizabeth persuaded him to become a [[socialist]].<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/1472645.stm "Campaigner Lord Longford dies"], BBC News, 3 August 2001. Retrieved on 31 March 2007.</ref> 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.<ref name="Guardian"/> The same year, he [[Catholicisation|became a Roman Catholic]].<ref name = Johnson/> His wife was initially dismayed by this, for she had been brought up a [[General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches|Unitarian]] and associated the Church of Rome with [[reactionary politics]], but in 1946 she joined the same church.<ref>Craig, Mary. ''Longford — A Biographical Portrait'' ([[Hodder & Stoughton]], 1978), pp. 59–61</ref> During the war, Pakenham was hired as an assistant for [[William Beveridge]], and was involved in the production of the [[Beveridge Report]] and the 1944 book ''[[Full Employment in a Free Society]]''.<ref name = Johnson/>

Pakenham then embarked on a political career. In [[1945 United Kingdom general election|July 1945]] he contested [[Oxford (UK Parliament constituency)|Oxford]] against the sitting [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]] member, [[Quintin Hogg, Baron Hailsham of St Marylebone|Quintin Hogg]], but was defeated by nearly 3,000 votes.<ref name = Johnson/> In October of that year he was created '''Baron Pakenham''', of [[Cowley, Oxford|Cowley]] in the [[City of Oxford]], in the [[Peerage of the United Kingdom]],<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=37305 |date=12 October 1945 |page=5026}}</ref> by the Labour government of [[Clement Attlee]], and took his seat in the [[House of Lords]] as one of the few Labour peers. He was immediately appointed a [[Lord-in-waiting]] by Attlee. In 1947, he was appointed deputy Foreign Secretary, outside the cabinet, with special responsibility for the [[Allied-occupied Germany#British zone|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".<ref>{{cite news |title=UK Parliament; House of Lords|url=https://hansard.parliament.uk/lords/2001-10-15/debates/bd9097a2-a6ef-4f5f-a577-570719fd04ca/LordsChamber |work=House of Lords; Volume 627 |date=15 October 2001}}</ref> In May 1948, he was moved to the lower-profile role of [[Secretary of State for Transport|Minister of Civil Aviation]] and was sworn of the [[Privy Council (United Kingdom)|Privy Council]] 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]].

[[File:Lord Longford appearing on "After Dark", 18 June 1988.jpg|right|thumb|On television discussion series ''[[After Dark (TV programme)|After Dark]]'' in 1988]]
In 1961, Pakenham inherited from his brother the [[Earl of Longford|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]], Longford was appointed [[Lord Privy Seal]] and [[Leader of the House of Lords]],<ref>{{cite news |title=Peering at the Catholic lords |url=http://archive.catholicherald.co.uk/article/18th-january-1985/7/peering-at-the-catholic-lords |newspaper=[[Catholic Herald]] |date=18 January 1985}}</ref> despite the fact that Wilson had little respect for him.<ref name="Guardian"/> In December 1965 he became [[Secretary of State for the Colonies]], 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,{{fact|date=September 2021}} 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 [[Secretary of State for Education|Education Secretary]] [[Patrick Gordon Walker]] to agree to the raising of the school-leaving age.<ref name="Guardian"/><ref>Mary Craig, ''Longford — A Biographical Portrait'' (Hodder & Stoughton, 1978), pp. 149</ref> In 1972 he was created a [[Order of the Garter|Knight Companion of the Garter]].<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=45349 |date=23 April 1971 |page=4083}}</ref>

==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]].

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.<ref>Stanford, Peter, [https://web.archive.org/web/20150924121554/http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4159/is_200307/ai_n12742007 "Looking for a Way Out"], ''[[The Independent]]'', 20 July 2003; retrieved on 31 March 2007.</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.newbridgefoundation.org.uk/about.html |title=ABOUT US |publisher=New Bridge Foundation |access-date=16 November 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141127083101/http://www.newbridgefoundation.org.uk/about.html |archive-date=27 November 2014 }}</ref>

New Bridge set up ''[[Inside Time]]'' in 1990, the only national newspaper for the UK's prison population. {{As of|2014}}, novelist and journalist [[Rachel Billington]], Longford's daughter, worked at the title one day a week.<ref name="Inside Story">{{cite web |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/inside-story-prison-media-783486.html |title=Inside Story: Prison media |work=The Independent |date=18 February 2008 |access-date=16 November 2014}}</ref><ref name="Month by Month">{{cite journal |url=http://www.insidetime.org/articleview.asp?a=1908&c=month_by_month__november_2014 |title=Month by Month |author=Billington, Rachel |journal=[[Inside Time Newspaper]] |date=November 2014}}</ref> 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 Board|parole system]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Crime – a challenge to us all: report of the Labour Party Study Group (Chairman: Lord Longford) |url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/1964/jul/15/crime-and-penal-reform |work=London: Labour Party Study Group |date=1964}}</ref>

Longford was a leading figure in the [[Nationwide Festival of Light]] 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.<ref name = Johnson/> 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 [[HM Prison Albany|Albany prison]] on the Isle of Wight, who was suffering from [[AIDS]] 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.<ref name="peterstanford"/>

===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 murders|Moors murderer]] Myra Hindley, who had been jailed for life along with [[Ian Brady]] in 1966 for the [[Moors murders]].<ref name = Johnson/>

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,<ref>{{cite book |last=Smith |first=David, with Lee, Carol Ann |title=Witness: The Story of David Smith, Chief Prosecution Witness in the Moors Murders Case |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R-Q4w1fPSh0C |year=2011 |publisher=Mainstream Publishing Company |page=Chapter 22|isbn=9781845968151 }}</ref> 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 parole. 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 (British TV programme)|Brass Tacks]]'', which featured arguments for and against Hindley being considered for parole. Ann West, the mother of Lesley Ann Downey, spoke out against the suggestion of Hindley ever being paroled, and openly told viewers that she would kill Hindley if she ever was released.<ref>{{cite news |title=Brass Tacks: Freedom for Myra Hindley? |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1qbVllbx6kl | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201018144451/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1qbVllbx6kl| archive-date=2020-10-18 | url-status=dead|work=[[Brass Tacks (BBC TV series)|Brass Tacks]] |date=6 July 1977}}</ref>

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 suspicion that Hindley’s reported rehabilitation and remorse were nothing more than a ploy to boost her chances of gaining parole. There was also widespread doubt regarding Hindley’s claims that she had only taken part in the killings due to being bullied and blackmailed by Brady.

In 1990, [[Home Secretary]] [[David Waddington]] ruled that [[Whole life tariff|"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, following a High Court ruling that all life sentence prisoners had to be informed of their minimum sentences, and Longford later expressed his "disgust" at this ruling, comparing her imprisonment to that of Jews in Nazi Germany.<ref>{{cite news |title=Case for release of Myra Hindley From Mr David L Astor and Lord Longford |url=https://archive.org/stream/NewsUK1994UKEnglish/Dec%2014%201994%2C%20The%20Times%2C%20%2365137%2C%20UK%20%28en%29_djvu.txt |work=[[The Times]] |date=13 December 1994}}</ref> 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. She did regain contact with him again following this, however.<ref>{{cite news |last=Staff |first=Duncan |title=Dangerous Liaison |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2006/oct/14/ukcrime.weekend7 |work=The Guardian |date=13 October 2006}}</ref>

The next three Home Secretaries all agreed with Waddington's ruling. Hindley appealed against her whole life tariff in the [[High Court of Justice|High Court]] in December 1997, November 1998 and March 2000, but each appeal was rejected. Longford maintained that she was a reformed character 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. Unlike Hindley, Brady never wanted to be paroled from his life sentence, and remained in custody for more than 50 years until his death in May 2017 at the age of 79.<ref>{{cite news |title=How Moors murderer Brady had access to vulnerable teens in jail |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-48751178 |work=BBC News |date=26 June 2019}}</ref>

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.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Hindley+votes+claim+lashed.-a061278583 |title=Hindley votes claim lashed |work=thefreelibrary.com |access-date=23 March 2016}}</ref> Longford regularly condemned the media - especially ''[[The Sun (United Kingdom)|The Sun]]'' newspaper - for its "exploitation" of Ann West, who frequently opposed any suggestion of Hindley being paroled, often threatening to kill her if she was ever set free. 

In 1986, Longford reportedly told Ann West that unless she forgave Hindley and Brady, she would not go to [[heaven]] when she died. He also commented that he was "tremendously sorry for her, but letting her decide Myra's fate would be ludicrous".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bernardomahoney.com/keithbennett/articles/wmmnbfsdwaehe30ys.shtml |title=Why Myra must never be freed; Scots detective who arrested evil Hindley ends 30-year silence |work=bernardomahoney.com |date=23 March 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081209091843/http://www.bernardomahoney.com/keithbennett/articles/wmmnbfsdwaehe30ys.shtml |archive-date=9 December 2008 }}</ref>

Hindley died in November 2002, having never been paroled.<ref>{{cite news |title=With release in sight and after 36 years in jail, Myra Hindley dies |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2002/nov/16/ukcrime.sarahhall |work=The Guardian |date=15 November 2002}}</ref>

The story of Longford's campaign to free Hindley was told in the [[Channel 4]] film ''[[Longford (film)|Longford]]'' in 2006. Longford was played by [[Jim Broadbent]] (who won a [[BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role|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 private and consensual [[homosexual]] acts between men over the age of 21.  He had been a staunch public supporter of [[Edward Douglas-Scott-Montagu, 3rd Baron Montagu of Beaulieu|Lord Montagu]] and his lover [[Peter Wildeblood]] after the two were jailed for [[Labouchere Amendment|breaking anti-gay laws]] in the early 1950s, and visited them regularly in prison.<ref>Stanford, Peter (2003). ''The Outcast's Outcast: A Biography of Lord Longford''. Stroud: Sutton Publishing. pp. 512 pp. {{ISBN|0-7509-3248-1}}.</ref>

In the 1960s, while continuing to support the decriminalisation of [[homosexuality]] in [[England]] and [[Wales]], he nonetheless asserted that homosexuality was "nauseating" and that, regardless of any change in the law, it was "utterly wrongful".<ref>Galloway, Bruce. ''Prejudice and Pride: Discrimination Against Gay People in Modern Britain'', Routledge & Keegan Paul Publishing, 1983, (page 85 – Nigel Warner).</ref> He was of the belief that homosexuality was something that could be "taught".<ref>{{cite book |last=Baker |first=Paul |title=Public Discourses of Gay Men |date=2005 |publisher=Routledge}}</ref><ref name="Baker p51" />

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".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.workersliberty.org/node/1531 |title=Workers' Liberty |work=workersliberty.org}}</ref> In the late 1990's and early 2000's, he fought attempts by the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]] government to remove it. Section 28 was eventually repealed in 2003, two years after his death. 

Longford's highly publicised condemnation of homosexuality in the late 1980s made him a target of comedian [[Julian Clary]], who often [[satirised]] him in his stage shows and television appearances.<ref>Julian Clary – The Mincing Machine Tour – Virgin Video Media (1989)</ref>

Longford also opposed any attempts to lower the age of consent for homosexual acts below 21; in 1977 and in 1994, he spoke against lowering it to 18, claiming that "the years of 18 and 19 are [...] the years when the destiny of young men may be decided for life" and that people of that age could have too easily been seduced into a homosexual lifestyle; in the early years of [[Tony Blair]]'s Ministry, he criticized plans to equalise the [[age of consent]] for [[gay]] men (at that time 18) with that of heterosexual men (16), remarking in a 1998 House of Lords debate that:

<blockquote>...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.<ref name="Baker p51">{{cite book |last1=Baker |first1=Paul |url=https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9841.2004.00252.x |title=Public Discourses of Gay Men |date=2006 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-27157-3 |location=London |page=51 |chapter=Unnatural Acts: the House of Lords debates on gay male law reform |doi=10.1111/j.1467-9841.2004.00252.x |url-access=subscription}}</ref></blockquote>

He was ultimately unsuccessful on those counts, as the age of consent for gay men was lowered to 18 in 1994 and to 16 in 2001.

==House of Lords reforms (1999)==
Under the [[House of Lords Act 1999]], the majority of [[hereditary peer]]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]], and remained in the Lords as '''Baron Pakenham of Cowley''', of Cowley in the County of Oxfordshire.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=55672 |date=19 November 1999 |page=12349}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite book |last=Wilkinson |first=Burke |title=The Zeal of the Convert: the Life of Erskin Childers |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hEGw4th77csC&q=%22peace+by+ordeal%22+definitive |year=1985 |publisher=Second Chance Press |isbn=978-0-933256-53-8 |page=241}}</ref><ref>''Michael Collins. Soldier and Statesman'' by Piaras Beaslaí (Dublin, 1937), Appendix, pp. 414-420</ref>

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 (historian)|Thomas P. O'Neill]]. He campaigned for decades to have the [[Hugh Lane]] bequest pictures restored to Dublin, and with Lord Moyne and Sir Denis Mahon, brokered a compromise-sharing agreement in 1959.<ref name="royfoster">{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/may/30/how-ireland-was-robbed-hugh-lanes-great-art-collection/2015/may/30/ |title=How Ireland was robbed of Hugh Lane's great art collection |author=Foster, Roy |work=The Guardian |date=30 May 2015}}</ref>

==Marriage and children==
At Oxford, Longford met his wife, [[Elizabeth Pakenham, Countess of Longford|Elizabeth Harman]], an undergraduate at [[Lady Margaret Hall]]. Lady Longford 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 (UK Parliament constituency)|Cheltenham]] in the [[1935 United Kingdom general election|1935 general election]] and for [[Oxford (UK Parliament constituency)|Oxford]] in [[1950 United Kingdom general election|1950]].

The marriage produced four sons and four daughters, followed by 26 grandchildren and 18 great-grandchildren.  Their children were:<ref>Mosley, Charles, editor. Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes. Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003, volume 2, page 2395</ref>

* [[Courtesy titles in the United Kingdom|Lady]] [[Antonia Fraser|Antonia Margaret Caroline Pakenham]] (born 27 August 1932), writer, previously married to [[Hugh Fraser (British politician)|Hugh Fraser]] and had six children, and then to playwright [[Harold Pinter]] until his death;
* [[Thomas Pakenham (historian)|Thomas Frank Dermot Pakenham, 8th Earl of Longford]] (born 14 August 1933);
* [[The Honourable|The Hon]] Patrick Maurice Pakenham (17 April 1937 – 8 June 2005);
* [[Judith Kazantzis|Lady Judith Elizabeth Pakenham]] (14 August 1940 – 18 September 2018);
* [[Rachel Billington|Lady Rachel Mary Pakenham]] (born 11 April 1942), writer, married to director [[Kevin Billington]], four children;
* The Hon Sir [[Michael Pakenham|Michael Aidan Pakenham]] [[Order of the British Empire|KBE]] [[Order of St Michael and St George|CMG]] (born 3 November 1943);
* Lady Catherine Rose Pakenham (28 February 1946 – 11 August 1969); and
* The Hon Kevin John Toussaint Pakenham (1 November 1947 – 19 July 2020).

==Death==
Lord Longford died from [[heart failure]] at [[Chelsea and Westminster Hospital]] on 3 August 2001 at the age of 95 and was cremated at [[Mortlake Crematorium]].<ref name = Johnson/><ref name="Kew Soc">{{cite journal |url=http://www.kewsociety.org/sites/kewsociety.org/files/2006_spring.pdf |title=Mortlake Crematorium |journal=On Kew |date=Spring 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131212113539/http://www.kewsociety.org/sites/kewsociety.org/files/2006_spring.pdf |archive-date=12 December 2013 }}</ref>  He was succeeded in the earldom by his eldest son, Thomas.

The Countess of Longford died in October 2002 at the age of 96.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/the-countess-of-longford-614869.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090706212035/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/the-countess-of-longford-614869.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=6 July 2009 |title=The Countess of Longford |last=Bradford |first=Sarah |date=24 October 2002 |work=The Independent |access-date=22 October 2008 |location=London}}</ref> 

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".<ref name="cnn.com"/>

==Arms==
{{Infobox COA wide
| name = Frank Pakenham, 7th Earl of Longford, KG, PC
| image = File:Coat of Arms of Frank Pakenham, 7th Earl of Longford, KG, PC.png
| imagesize = 250px
| coronet = An Earl's Coronet
| bannerimage = 
| badgeimage = 
| notes = 
| crest = Out of a mural crown Or a demi eagle displayed Gules beaked Or.
| torse = 
| helm = 
| escutcheon = Quarterly Or and Gules in dexter chief an eagle displayed Vert.
| supporters = Dexter a lion Azure charged on the shoulder with an escarbuncle Or sinister a griffin Azure winged Ermine beaked and membered Or.
| compartment = 
| motto = GLORIA VIRTUTIS UMBRA
| orders = 
| other_elements = 
| banner = 
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}}

==See also==
*[[The Longford Lectures]]
*[[The Longford Prize]]

==References ==
{{reflist}}

==Films about Lord Longford==
*''[[Longford (film)|Longford]]'' (2006): Longford's efforts to obtain parole for Moors murderer [[Myra Hindley]] were dramatised in a [[Channel 4]] film, with Longford portrayed by [[Jim Broadbent]], [[Samantha Morton]] as [[Myra Hindley]], [[Lindsay Duncan]] as [[Lady Longford]] and [[Andy Serkis]] as [[Ian Brady]].

==Books about Lord Longford==
* {{cite book |last=Stanford |first=Peter |title=The Outcast's Outcast: A Biography of Lord Longford |url=https://archive.org/details/outcastsoutcastb0000stan/page/512 |year=2003 |publisher=Sutton Publishing |location=Stroud, UK |isbn=0-7509-3248-1 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/outcastsoutcastb0000stan/page/512 512] }}
* [[Fraser, Antonia]] (2015), ''My History: A Memoir of Growing Up'', New York: Doubleday. [Account, both personal and political, by a daughter of Pakenham.]  

==External links==
*{{NPG name}}
*[http://www.longfordtrust.org/ Longford Trust]
*[http://www.newbridgefoundation.org.uk/ New Bridge Foundation]
*{{Hansard-contribs | mr-francis-pakenham | the Earl of Longford }}
*"[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/1472645.stm Campaigner Lord Longford dies]". [[BBC News]] article dated Friday, 3 August 2001
*"[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/430115.stm Lord Longford: Aristocratic moral crusader]". BBC News obituary dated Friday, 3 August 2001
*"[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/1472769.stm Tributes to humanist peer]". BBC News article dated Friday, 3 August 2001
*[http://politics.guardian.co.uk/politicsobituaries/story/0,1441,563425,00.html Lord Longford]. ''Guardian'' obituary by Peter Stanford dated Monday, 6 August 2001
*[https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld199900/minutes/991117/ldminute.htm Announcement of his taking the oath for the first time as Lord Pakenham of Cowley], House of Lords Minute of Proceedings, 17 November 1999
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20090707190314/http://www.oireachtas-debates.gov.ie/D/0177/D.0177.195911120035.html Recognition of his work on the Hugh Lane bequest]
* {{PM20|FID=pe/013149}}
*[https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/private-lives/yourcountry/collections/collections-second-world-war/parliamentarians-and-people/frank-pakenham-7th-earl-of-longford/ Portrait of Frank Pakenham in the UK Parliamentary Collections]

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