The Countess of Longford

[BREMENMURRAY]

Valerie Pakenham the authoress has died in Ireland.She was Countess of Longford but did not use the title

[BREMENMURRAY]

Ironically she was a native of Old Basing in Hampshire were the Marquesses of Winchester had their seat.The death of the eighteenth Marquess of Winchester was also confirmed earlier this week

[dpth...@gmail.com]

She was granddaughter of 1st Viscount Camrose.

[colinp]

A death notice here -  Death Notice of Valerie PAKENHAM (née McNair Scott) (rip.ie)

The death has occurred on Sunday, January 22nd of Valerie Pakenham (née McNair Scott), at her beloved home Tullynally, Castlepollard, Co. Westmeath; peacefully, surrounded by her family and devoted friends, after an illness stoically borne. 

Dearly loved wife of Thomas, wonderful mother to Maria, Eliza, Ned and Fred, cherished mother-in-law to Bogislav, Alex, Sarah, Claire, and inspiring grandmother to Aidan, Ciarán, Samuel, Anselm, Matilda, Gabriel, Julia, Tom, Lyra, Sasha and Ferdy. She will be much missed by her adored brother Nigel, and her large extended family and many friends. 

Valerie’s funeral cortège will depart from the Grand Gate at Tullynally on Monday, January 30th, at 10.45am, to arrive at St Michael’s Church, The Square, Castlepollard for 11am funeral service, and thereafter to the Lakelands Funeral Home and Crematorium, Cavan, for cremation ceremony at 2pm. 

The Pakenham family wishes to thank all those who have offered words of sympathy, cards and flowers since Valerie’s sad passing, and kindly ask for your support and understanding as they take the necessary time to grieve as a family.

[colinp]

So it seems her son (Hon) Frederick Augustus b 1971 has married Claire (though not necessarily)

Grandchildren Julia, Tom, Lyra, Sasha and Ferdy not in DPB

[Richard R]

[Colin - I prepared this post before seeing your latest offering, so apols if it appears to duplicate anything - but I haven't time to edit further!)

I see Valerie Pakenham's death notice mentions 11 gc, five of whom are not accounted for. They are: Julia, Tom (is this Thomas Arthur H[ercules] PAKENHAM b 2012 reg Q4 Kensington&Chelsea?), Lyra, Sasha & Ferdy (is this Ferdinand George PAKENHAM b 2016 reg Q3 Kent)

The notice mentions yr son’s Fred(erick) Augustus’ (his BMD birth reg Q1 1971 gives his 2nd forename as Hercules) partner Claire, and they may have married and had issue.

Looking through the GRO registrations I note the following:

Edward Hercules J PAKENHAM b 2011 reg Q3 Westminster – who he?

Arthur Hercules P C b 1992 reg Q4 Westminster (I take this to be Arthur b 1992 s of Dermot Philip Michael PAKENHAM b 1961 – both shown in DPB colls.)

[Richard R]

Arthur Hercules P C b 1992 reg Q4 Westminster (I take this to be Arthur b 1992 s of Dermot Philip Michael PAKENHAM b 1961 – both shown in DPB colls. I’ve now quickly x-checked with BMD. He was b 14 Aug 1992 (Times 18 Aug) and his BMD reg confirms this is the same person, mother shown as PERRY

[colinp]

A GRO search for PAKENHAM births with mother's maiden name LINDSEY not LINDSAY (as DPB) gives boys Ferdinand George and Thomas Arthur H (Daily Mail report in 2009 of wedding of parents, not highest authority I know, gives bride's surname as Lindsey) also Julia Elizabeth regd Q1/2011 K&C

[Patricia Light]

DPB has been updated to show: Hon Edward (son & Heir) m.2009 Sarah Lindsey & has the following issue: Thomas Arthur b.2012 - Ferdinand George b.2016 - Julia Elizabeth b.2011 & Hon Frederick by Claire (does not say they are married - Lyra (no date of birth) - Sasha (no date of birth)  Hope this helps to clarify things

Tricia

[Richard R]

Obit in the Times of 7 Feb 2023:

E X T R A C T

Valerie Pakenham obituary

Admired writer and chatelaine of Tullynally Castle in Co Westmeath who meticulously restored her husband’s family seat

Joining the Pakenham family could be a challenge for any young woman with literary aspirations. Yet Valerie McNair Scott, a scion of the Berry family, owners of The Daily Telegraph, was — though rather shy, and conscious of the literary productivity of the Pakenhams — possessed of a dauntless spirit and a gift for overcoming obstacles.

The greatest of these was that her husband Thomas, heir to the 7th Earl of Longford (a title he disclaimed, as a socialist), had at 27 inherited Pakenham Hall, a vast grey limestone castle in Co Westmeath, 17th-century but refashioned in gothic-revival style, with towers and turrets — “damp, neglected, semi-ruinous”, in his bride’s words, “and probably not to most people’s taste”. “It’s not a pretty house, darling,” her mother remarked…

…[Valerie] took on the restoration of the castle’s 100 cavernous rooms, echoing corridors and 27 derelict cottages, and the recovery of its jungle garden, but she found inspiration in its history. From Tullynally she would gather material to carve out a writing life, and produce, along with four children, several admired books…

… Valerie McNair Scott was born in Hampshire in 1939, the fourth of five children of Major Ronald Guthrie McNair Scott and the Hon Mary Cecilia Berry. Her maternal grandfather, translated from Wales to Fleet Street, was William Ewart Berry, Viscount Camrose, who had been editor-in-chief of The Sunday Times, chairman of the Financial Times, and was proprietor of The Daily Telegraph from 1928 to 1954…

… her sister Linda and husband Laurence Kelly plotted an engagement to their friend Thomas Pakenham, whose mother had decided that at 30 it was high time he married. Pakenham, “handsome and wonderfully clever and funny”, proposed on the battlements of his cousin Randal Dunsany’s Norman castle in Co Meath. “What more wonderful life than to live in an Irish castle, however damp, surrounded by lakes and hills,” she mused…

… Their wedding in July 1964 at St Mary of the Angels Catholic Church in Bayswater was followed by a grand tour, visiting Irish grandees (Mariga and Desmond Guinness and the Knight of Glin) in villas and palazzi, before fetching up at Tullynally…

…[she had] four children: Maria, Eliza, Ned and Fred, who all survive her along with Thomas. Eliza is the author of two books of Pakenham family history, Ned is an antiques dealer, and Maria and Fred lead private lives…

… “Her complete lack of snobbery or class consciousness won her the friendship of all sorts of people,” ... At her packed funeral in Castlepollard, for which she chose the readings that her children and grandchildren gave, a parishioner was quoted who called her “a lady without notions” (high praise in Ireland). Her younger brother Nigel McNair Scott, in his eulogy, vividly recalled her aged 21, “before a dance in the evening sunlight on the terrace, in a golden silk dress, fair hair flowing, dancing, twirling to the sound, through open windows, of Édith Piaf’s Milord.”

Valerie Pakenham, writer and chatelaine of Tullynally, was born on November 13, 1939. She died of cancer on January 22, 2023, aged 83

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/valerie-pakenham-obituary-zr2w7glpn

[Isabelle Maltais]

Hello, Her eldest daughter Lady Anna Maria (1965) marrîed Bogislav Winner in 1997. They have Three children : Samuel Adam (2000) and twins Anselm Francis and Matilda Eileen (2002).

Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage 2018  Vol.I   p.740

Her youngest daughter Lady Eliza (1966) and husband have two sons: Aidan Carus (1996) and Ciaran Thomas (1998)

Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage 2018  Vol.I  p.1259

Thank you in advance,

Isabelle 

[Isabelle Maltais]

Hello, the second daughter Lady Eliza and husband have a third son: Gabriel Hercules (2002).

http://www.william1.co.uk/w92.htm.

Thank you in advance,

Isabelle.