Thomas Pakenham (historian)

Following the House of Lords Act 1999 he is not entitled, as a hereditary peer, to sit in the House of Lords. His father was created a life peer in addition to his hereditary titles in order to be able to retain his seat in the upper house.

Pakenham owned Longford Greyhound Stadium and sold it in 1966 to Longford Sports Ltd.

In 1964, Pakenham married Valerie Susan McNair Scott, daughter of Major Ronald Guthrie McNair Scott and the Hon. Mary Cecilia Berry, daughter of William Berry, 1st Viscount Camrose. They have four children:

Thomas Pakenham does not use his title of Earl of Longford and before succeeding his father did not use his courtesy title. However, he has not disclaimed his British titles of Baron Silchester and Baron Pakenham under the Peerage Act 1963, and his Irish earldom cannot be disclaimed, as it is not covered by the Act.

Pakenham was educated at Belvedere College, a secondary school in Dublin, and Magdalen College, Oxford. After graduating in 1955, he travelled to Ethiopia, a trip which is described in his first book The Mountains of Rasselas. On returning to Britain, he worked on the editorial staff of the Times Educational Supplement and later for The Sunday Telegraph and The Observer. He divides his time between London and County Westmeath, Ireland, where he is the chairman of the Irish Tree Society and honorary custodian of Tullynally Castle.

Thomas Francis Dermot Pakenham, 8th Earl of Longford (born 14 August 1933), known simply as Thomas Pakenham, is an Anglo-Irish historian and arborist who has written several prize-winning books on the diverse subjects of African history, Victorian and post-Victorian British history, and trees.