Elizabeth Longford was born Elizabeth Harman in 1906 in London, England, the eldest of five children of two doctors. Elizabeth attended Francis Holland School in London, Headington School in Oxford, and eventually Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. There she met close friend Hugh Gaitskell, later leader of the Labour Party. In Oxford she also met her future husband Frank Pakenham. They married in 1931. Both eventually converted to Roman Catholicism and also shared strong socialist beliefs. They had eight children, many of whom became writers including Antonia Fraser, Rachel Billington, and Thomas Pakenham. In 1961 she became Lady Longford when her husband inherited an earldom.

Longford didn't start publishing until her 50s with Jameson's Raid in 1960. Other works included Victoria RI, a biography about Queen Victoria in 1964 and the acclaimed two-volume biography of the Duke of Wellington in 1969 and 1972. She also wrote about Winston Churchill, Lord Byron, and Wilfrid Scawen Blunt.

Elizabeth Longford published her memoirs, entitled The Pebbled Shore, in 1986 on the occasion of her eightieth birthday. She was a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and was on the board of trustees of the National Portrait Gallery in London. She died on October 23, 2002 at age 96.

Sources:

Elizabeth Harman Pakenham, Countess of Longford. Encyclopaedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Elizabeth-Harman-Pakenham-Countess-of-Longford Accessed on June 6, 2020.

Elizabeth Longford (Elizabeth, Countess of Longford). Royal Society of Literature. https://rsliterature.org/fellow/elizabeth-longford-elizabeth-countess-of-longford-cbe/ Accessed on June 9, 2020.

Grove, Valerie. "Lady Elizabeth Longford". The Guardian, October 24, 2002. https://www.theguardian.com/news/2002/oct/24/guardianobituaries.booksobituaries Accessed on June 9, 2020.

"Lady Longford dies aged 96" BBC News, 23 October 2002. [Accessed on-line at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/611906.stm on 23 August 2007.]

Wilfrid Scawen Blunt (1840-1922), British poet and writer, served in the Diplomatic Service from 1858 to 1869. In 1869, he married Lady Anne Noel, the granddaughter of Lord Byron. Blunt traveled extensively in the Middle East and in India. He was a strong opponent of British imperialism and his prose works included The Future of Islam (1882), Ideas about India (1885), and The Secret History of the English Occupation of Egypt (1907). He was also involved in Irish politics and composed his In Vinculis sonnets while imprisoned in Ireland.

Source:

Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 174: British Travel Writers, 1876-1909. A Bruccoli Clark Layman Book. Edited by Barbara Brothers, and Julia Gergits, Youngstown State University. The Gale Group, 1997. pp. 41-53. [Accessed on-line at http://galenet.galegroup.com on 23 August 2007.]