I HAVEN'T GOT A CLUE WHAT I'D BE DOING NOW OTHERWISE: our scholar David Shipley recalls how his writing career began in prison by doing a degree READ MORE

In Memory of “The Outcasts’ Outcast”

Frank Longford (1905-2001), pictured above, wanted his epitaph to be “the outcasts’ outcast”. It summed up his long and often public career as a politician, cabinet minister, and prisons’ campaigner that was all about standing up for the unpopular and those on the margins of society. In 1956 he founded New Bridge to create links between prisoners and the community. On resigning from the Labour cabinet in 1968, he launched New Horizon, a charity for homeless youngsters.


Lord Longford

Encouraging Rehabilitation 

Many continue to associate Lord Longford primarily with his unpopular campaign to parole the Moors Murderer, Myra Hindley, but it was in reality just one part of a prisons’ crusade that lasted for 70 years, based on his belief that every offender, whatever their crime, could be rehabilitated.


Kevin Pakenham

Our Founding Chairman

It was Frank Longford’s youngest son, Kevin Pakenham, who was the Founding Chairman of the trust at its inception in 2002. He continued to lead it with great energy, insight and determination until his sudden death in July 2020. He is much missed by his widow, Ronke, his children and grandchildren, his siblings, colleagues and many friends. Without him, the Longford Trust would not exist.  Read more about him.


“If we are really concerned with the reform of prisoners, what we do when they emerge from custody is at least as important as what we do for them while they are inside” Lord Longford

What We Do In His Name