William Pakenham, 4th Earl of Longford

General William Pakenham, 4th Earl of Longford (31 January 1819 – 19 April 1887), styled The Honourable William Pakenham before 1860, was an Anglo-Irish soldier and Conservative politician.

Background
Pakenham was the second son of Thomas Pakenham, 2nd Earl of Longford, by Lady Georgiana Emma Charlotte Lygon, daughter of William Lygon, 1st Earl Beauchamp.

Public life
Pakenham succeeded in the earldom in 1860 on the death of his elder brother, the third Earl. He sat on the Conservative benches in the House of Lords and served as Under-Secretary of State for War from 1866 to 1868 under first the Earl of Derby and later Benjamin Disraeli. He was also a Colonel in the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the Northumberland Fusiliers. In February 1870 he was voted chairman of the Central Protestant Defence Association which was established in response to the Irish Church Disestablishment Act 1869. He also served as Lord Lieutenant of Longford from 1874 to 1887. In Dublin, he was a member of the Kildare Street Club.

Family
Lord Longford married the Honourable Selina Rice-Trevor, daughter of George Rice-Trevor, 4th Baron Dynevor, in 1862. He died in April 1887, aged 68, and was succeeded in the earldom by his second but eldest surviving son, Thomas. His grandson Frank Pakenham, 7th Earl of Longford, became a prominent Labour politician. The Countess of Longford survived her husband by over thirty years and died in January 1918, aged 81.