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.

War years

During World War II, Powell enlisted in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, almost a month after returning home because most of the recruting stations would not take him and Powell only managed to join the Warwickshire's by enlisting officially as an Australian. Powell also fought in Africa with the Desert Rats. It was here in the Algiers that the seed of Powell's dislike of the United States was planted. After talking with some senior American officials he became convinced that one of America's main war aims was to destroy the British Empire. Writing home on the 16th February 1943 Powell said:

Related Topics:
World War II - Royal Warwickshire Regiment - Australian - Africa - Desert Rats - Algiers - British Empire

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"I see growing on the horizon the greater peril than Germany or Japan ever were...our terrible enemy, America...".

Related Topics:
Germany - Japan - America

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Powell continued his obsession of the alleged anti-Britishness of the Americans during the war. Powell cut out and retained all his life an article from the Statesman newspaper of the 13th November 1943 in which the American Clare Booth Luce said in a speech that Indian independence would mean that the "USA will really have won the greatest war in the world for democracy".

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Powell desperately wanted to go to the Far East to help the fight against Japan because 'the war in Europe is won now, and I want to see the flag back in Singapore' before, Powell thought, the Americans beat Britain to it.

Related Topics:
Far East - Japan - Europe - Flag - Singapore

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By the end of the war, he was the youngest brigadier in the British army, having started off as a Private. He felt guilty at the end of the war for having survived when many of those he'd met during his journey through the ranks had not.

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