Michael Pakenham Michael Pakenham Sir Michael Aidan Pakenham, (born 3 November 1943) is a British retired diplomat. Pakenham is the third son of Labour politician Frank Pakenham, 7th Earl of Longford, and Elizabeth Harman. He is the brother of Thomas Pakenham, Lady Antonia Fraser and Lady Rachel Billington. He was educated at Ampleforth College and Trinity College, Cambridge, and was an exchange fellow at Rice University. Pakenham was briefly a reporter for the "Washington Post" before joining the Foreign Office in 1965. He served in Nairobi and Warsaw before being seconded to the Cabinet Office 1971–74 as Assistant Private Secretary, then Private
Thomas Pakenham (historian) the Irish Tree Society and honorary custodian of Tullynally Castle. Books authored or co-authored by Thomas Pakenham: Thomas Pakenham (historian) 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. He is the son of The 7th Earl of Longford, a Labour minister, and Elizabeth Longford. He has seven siblings, among them Lady Antonia Fraser, a writer who was married to playwright Harold Pinter; Lady Rachel Billington,