Edward Pakenham, 6th Earl of Longford | |
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| Senator | |
| In office 7 November 1946 – 21 April 1948 | |
| Constituency | Nominated by the Taoiseach |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1902-12-29)29 December 1902 London, England |
| Died | 5 February 1961(1961-02-05) (aged 58) Dublin, Ireland |
| Party | Independent |
| Spouse | |
| Parent |
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| Education | Christ Church, Oxford |
| Alma mater | Eton College |
Edward Arthur Henry Pakenham, 6th Earl of Longford (29 December 1902 – 5 February 1961) was an Irishpeer,politician, andlittérateur. Also known asEamon de Longphort, he was amember of the fifthSeanad Éireann, the upper house of the Irish Parliament, in the 1940s.[1]
Pakenham was born at 14 Curzon Street, London on 29 December 1902,[2] the elder son ofThomas Pakenham, 5th Earl of Longford and his wifeLady Mary Child-Villiers, daughter ofVictor Child Villiers, 7th Earl of Jersey. He was known by thecourtesy title Lord Silchester from birth until 1915 and was the only one of the Pakenham children on whom his mother doted, apparently because he would succeed to theearldom on his father's death and because he was always in delicate health.
He was educated atEton (where he twice received the Wilder Divinity Prize) and atChrist Church, Oxford from which he graduated with aBA in 1925, later promoted toMA in 1928.[3]
Pakenham succeeded to the earldom and its subsidiary titles on 21 August 1915 at the age of 12 when his father waskilled in action in theGallipoli campaign.[1]
Longford was anIrish nationalist since his days at Eton, taking inspiration from theEaster Rising in 1916 and the 1917Russian Revolution. He learnedIrish and adopted the name Eamon deLongphort. His political views made him unpopular at both Eton and Christ Church, where he was famously put in "Mercury", the pond containing a statue ofMercury inTom Quad.
He was a lifelong member of the extremely smallAnglo-Catholic minority within theChurch of Ireland.
On 7 November 1946, he wasnominated by the Taoiseach,Éamon de Valera as a member of5th Seanad, filling a vacancy caused by the death ofWilliam Magennis.[4][5] He was not re-appointed to the6th Seanad.
Lord Longford became Chairman of theGate Theatre in Dublin in 1930 and continued to work for the theatre until 1936, when he founded the Longford Players.[1]
His plays includeAscendancy,The Melians,The Vineyard, andYahoo (aboutJonathan Swift).[1] An excellent linguist andClassical scholar, he translatedLe Bourgeois gentilhomme,Le Malade Imaginaire,L'école des femmes,Tartuffe, andLe Barbier de Séville (from French) andAgamemnon andOedipus Rex (orOedipus Tyrannus) (fromGreek) and adapted the novellaCarmilla for the stage.
He often collaborated with his wife, Christine, with whom he was also responsible for redecoratingPakenham Hall inChinese style. Pakenham Hall was often the scene of gatherings of Oxford-educated intellectuals such asJohn Betjeman,Evelyn Waugh, andMaurice Bowra.
Longford had several volumes of poetry published, some at the expense of his mother when he was still at Eton, but he is not considered to have been a very good poet.
Longford met his future wife,Christine Patti Trew (1900-1980) as anOxford undergraduate. They were married on 18 July 1925 and had no children.[1]
Lord Longford died in 1961 at the age of 58 and is buried atMount Jerome Cemetery, Dublin. He was succeeded in the earldom by his younger brother,Frank.[1]
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| Preceded by | Earl of Longford 1915–1961 | Succeeded by |
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