Enoch Powell

The Right Honourable John Enoch Powell MBE (June 16, 1912 – February 8, 1998) was a British politician. Controversial throughout his career, his tenure in senior office was brief; however, his skills as a polemicist and orator gained significant public support for his controversial views on issues such as immigration and the United Kingdom's entry into the European Union, sparking national debates which continue to this day.

Other details

Despite his earlier atheism Powell became a devout Anglican, having thought in 1949 "that he heard the bells of St Peter's Wolverhampton calling him" (Heffer p130) while walking to his flat in his (then future) constituency. Subsequently, he became a warden of Westminster Abbey. He spent much of his later life trying to prove, with close textual reading, that Christ had not been crucified but hanged.

Related Topics:
Atheism - Anglican - 1949 - Westminster Abbey - Crucified

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Powell was reading Greek by age five, learning it from his mother. At age 70 he began learning his 12th and final language, Hebrew.

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Powell appeared in the 2002 List of "100 Great Britons" (sponsored by the BBC and voted for by the public). The BBC History Magazine made the comment: "Powell's career was a total failure and with luck he will be forgotten".

Related Topics:
2002 - BBC

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Powell is mentioned in several Monty Python skits, including "Travel Agent" and "Election Special".

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Powell had remarked that "all political careers end in failure" and did not hesitate to agree that this maxim applied to his own. Like Tony Benn (a personal friend from a different political background, whom Powell had aided to renounce his peerage and so remain an elected MP), he was seen as one of the last of the politicians to put conscience and duty to his constituents before loyalty to his party or the sake of his career.

Related Topics:
Tony Benn - Peerage - MP

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Powell's rhetorical gifts were also employed, with success, beyond politics. He was a poet of considerable accomplishment, with four published collections to his name: First Poems; Casting Off; Dancer's End; and The Wedding Gift. His Collected Poems appeared in 1990. He translated Herodotus (The History of Herodotus) and published many other works of classical scholarship. He published a biography of Joseph Chamberlain. Powell published many books on political matters too, that were often annotated collections of his speeches. His political publications were often as critical of his own party as they were of Labour; often making fun of what he saw as logical fallacies in reasoning or action. His book 'Freedom & Reality' contained many nonsensical quotes from Labour party manifestos or Harold Wilson.

Related Topics:
Herodotus - Joseph Chamberlain - Harold Wilson

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Enoch Powell died in 1998 from the effects caused by Parkinson's disease at the age of 85, and is interred in Warwick Cemetery, Warwickshire. His wife, Pamela, and their daughters, survived him.

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