Frank Pakenham, 7th Earl of Longford

The Right Honourable The Earl of Longford KG PC
Longford in 1974
Leader of the House of Lords
In office 18 October 1964 – 16 January 1968
Prime Minister	Harold Wilson
Preceded by	The Lord Carrington
Succeeded by	The Lord Shackleton
Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal
In office 6 April 1966 – 16 January 1968
Prime Minister	Harold Wilson
Preceded by	Sir Frank Soskice
Succeeded by	The Lord Shackleton
In office 18 October 1964 – 23 December 1965
Prime Minister	Harold Wilson
Preceded by	Selwyn Lloyd
Succeeded by	Sir Frank Soskice
Secretary of State for the Colonies
In office 23 December 1965 – 6 April 1966
Prime Minister	Harold Wilson
Preceded by	Anthony Greenwood
Succeeded by	Frederick Lee
First Lord of the Admiralty
In office 24 May 1951 – 13 October 1951
Prime Minister	Clement Attlee
Preceded by	The Viscount Hall
Succeeded by	James Thomas
Minister of Civil Aviation
In office 31 May 1948 – 1 June 1951
Prime Minister	Clement Attlee
Preceded by	The Lord Nathan
Succeeded by	The Lord Ogmore
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (Deputy Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs)
In office 17 April 1947 – 31 May 1948
Prime Minister	Clement Attlee
Preceded by	John Hynd
Succeeded by	Hugh Dalton
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for War
In office 4 October 1946 – 17 April 1947
Prime Minister	Clement Attlee
Preceded by	The Lord Nathan
Succeeded by	John Freeman
Lord-in-waiting Government Whip
In office 14 October 1945 – 4 October 1946
Prime Minister	Clement Attlee
Preceded by	The Lord Alness
Succeeded by	The Lord Chorley
Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
as a hereditary peer 16 October 1945 – 11 November 1999
Preceded by	Peerage created [1]
Succeeded by	Seat abolished
as a life peer 17 November 1999 – 3 August 2001
Personal details
Born	Francis Aungier Pakenham (1905-12-05)5 December 1905 London, England
Died	3 August 2001(2001-08-03) (aged 95) London, England
Political party	Labour
Spouse	Elizabeth Harman ​ (m. 1931)​
Children	8, including Antonia, Thomas, Judith, Rachel, and Michael
Parent(s)	Thomas Pakenham, 5th Earl of Longford Lady Mary Child-Villiers
Alma mater	New College, Oxford

Francis Aungier Pakenham, 7th Earl of LongfordKG, PC (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 family, the Pakenhams (who became Earls of Longford), he was one of the few aristocratic hereditary peers ever to serve in a senior capacity within a Labour government.

Longford was famed for championing social outcasts and unpopular causes.^[2] 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 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.^[3]

As a devout Christian determined to translate faith into action, he was known for his bombastic style and his eccentricity.^[4] 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.^[5]

In 1972, he was made a 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).^[6][7] 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.^[8] Longford was also an outspoken critic of the British press, and once said it was "trembling on the brink of obscenity".^[9]

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.^[10][11] He opposed furthering gay rights legislation, including the equalisation of the age of consent, and also supported the passage of Section 28.^[11][12]