Hercules Pakenham

Colonel Hercules Arthur Pakenham (17 February 1863 – 28 March 1937) was a unionist politician in Northern Ireland.

A member of the Pakenham family headed by the Earl of Longford, he was the eldest son of Lieutenant-General Thomas Pakenham, by Elizabeth Clarke, daughter of William Clarke, of New York City. He was educated at Eton and the Royal Military College Sandhurst from which he was commissioned as an officer in the Grenadier Guards in 1883. He resigned his commission in the militia on 27 September 1902. In 1906 he became lieutenant-colonel and commanding officer of the London Irish Rifles, a unit of the Middlesex Rifle Volunteers.

In 1910 he entered local politics when he was elected to the London County Council as a Municipal Reform Party councillor for Marylebone East. He unsuccessfully sought election in 1913 to the United Kingdom Parliament when he contested the Londonderry City by-election as a Unionist, being defeated by a Liberal by just 57 votes.

When the First World War broke out he raised and commanded the 11th (Service) Battalion Royal Irish Rifles.

Pakenham was elected as an Ulster Unionist Party member of the Senate of Northern Ireland in 1928 and served until 1937.

Pakenham married Lillian Blanche Georgiana Ashley, daughter of Evelyn Ashley and sister of Lord Mount Temple, in 1895. They had one son and two daughters. He died in March 1937, aged 74. His wife survived him by two years and died in September 1939, aged 64.