Elizabeth Pakenham, Countess of Longford

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Frank and Elizabeth Pakenham, 1931

Elizabeth Pakenham, Countess of Longford , also known as Elizabeth Longford CBE (born August 30, 1906 in London as Elizabeth Harman , † October 23, 2002 in East Sussex ) was a British historian , journalist and writer .

Live and act

Elizabeth Harman was born in 1906 to the ophthalmologist Nathaniel Bishop Harman. Her other relatives included statesmen Joseph Chamberlain , her great-uncle, and Neville Chamberlain , her cousin.

Harman was tutored by private tutors until she was fifteen. She then attended the renowned Francis Holland School for girls. She studied literature and history at Lady Margaret Hall , a college of the University of Oxford .

Between 1929 and 1935 she lectured for the Workers Education Association . In 1935 and 1950 she ran in vain as a candidate for the Labor Party in the British House of Commons elections . She has also worked as a freelance journalist for the Daily Express and Sunday Times, and has published a number of books.

Her saying about Queen Victoria's "greatest legacy to her people" has become most famous. That was her refusal to "accept the pain of childbirth as the god-willed fate of women."

Marriage and offspring

On November 3, 1931 Harman married the politician and social reformer Sir Frank Aungier Pakenham (1905-2001), the second son of British General Thomas Pakenham, 5th Earl of Longford , and his wife Lady Mary Julia in St. Margaret Church in Westminster Child-Villiers. After the marriage, she took her husband's name and was henceforth known as Lady Elizabeth Pakenham. The marriage, which was considered happy, had eight children:

⚭ 1956–1977 Hon. Sir Hugh Charles Patrick Joseph Fraser
⚭ 1980 Harold Pinter
  • Thomas Frank Dermot (born August 14, 1933), 8th Earl of Longford; Historian and author ⚭ 1964 Valerie Susan McNair Scott
  • Hon. Patrick Maurice (born April 17, 1937) ⚭ 1968 Mary Elizabeth Plummer
  • Lady Judith Elizabeth (born August 14, 1940), poet ⚭ 1963–1982 Alexander John Kazantis
  • Lady Rachel Mary (born April 11, 1942), author and President of the British PEN ⚭ 1967 Kevin Billington
  • Hon. Michael Aidan (born November 3, 1943) ⚭ 1980 Meta Landreth Doak
  • Lady Catherine Rose (1946–1969 in a car accident), journalist
  • Hon. Kevin John Toussaint (born November 1, 1947) ⚭ 1972 Ruth Lesley Jackson

After the death of her father-in-law in 1961, Harman's husband inherited the title of Earl of Longford , so that she was allowed to call herself Elisabeth Pakenham, Countess of Longford, as his wife. In 2001, after the death of her husband, she received the title of Dowager Countess of Longford by which she was known in the last year of her life.

Others

Her younger brother, John Bishop Harman (1907-1994), was a noted psychiatrist , President of the Medical Defense Union, and Chairman of the British National Formulary . In the trial (1957) against the physician John Bodkin Adams , he was the defense expert. His daughter, Harriet Harman (* 1950), is the deputy leader of the Labor Party; she received a ministerial post under the government of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown and was a member of the European Parliament in Brussels .

Primary literature

  • Jameson's Raid. The Prelude to the Boer War , London 1960.
  • Wellington. The Years of the Sword , London 1969.
  • Wellington. Pillar of State , London 1972.
  • Winston Churchill. Authorized by the Winston Churchill Foundation , London 1974.
  • The Life of Byron (The Library of World Biography) , London 1976.
  • Royal House of Windsor , London 1976.
  • Queen. A Penguin Special , London 1977.
  • Pilgrimage of Passion. Life of Wilfred Scawen Blunt , London 1979.
  • Images of Chelsea , London 1980.
  • The Queen Mother. A Biography , London 1981.
  • Women in History. Thirty-five Centuries of Feminine Achievement , London 1981.
  • The Royal House of Windsor , London 1984.
  • The Oxford Book of Royal Anecdotes , London 1989.
  • Darling Loosy. Letters to Princess Louise, 1856-1939 , London 1991.
  • Royal thrones. Future of the Monarchy , London 1993.
  • Queen Victoria , London 2005.

Secondary literature

  • Alfred A. Knopf: The Memoirs of Elizabeth Longford , New York 2003.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Lady Longford dies aged 96
  2. ^ The New York Times - A Life of Own
  3. ↑ Hannah Pakula: Victoria. Daughter of Queen Victoria, wife of the Prussian Crown Prince, mother Wilhelm II. Marion von Schröder-Verlag, Munich 1999, p. 114. ISBN 3-547-77360-1
  4. ↑ How the 'barmy Lord Wrongford' got it right
  5. ↑ Pamela V. Cullen: A Stranger in Blood: The Case Files on Dr John Bodkin Adams , London, Elliott & Thompson (2006) ISBN 1-904027-19-9
personal data
SURNAME Pakenham, Elizabeth, Countess of Longford
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Harman, Elizabeth; Longford, Elizabeth
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British historian and writer
DATE OF BIRTH August 30, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH London
DATE OF DEATH October 23, 2002
Place of death East Sussex