Powell, Enoch

Powell, Enoch, 1912–98, British politician. Educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, he was a fellow there (1934–38) and professor of Greek at the Univ. of Sydney, Australia (1937–39). He entered Parliament in 1950 as a Conservative from Wolverhampton and served as minister of health (1960–63). With the Conservative defeat in 1964, he became shadow minister of defense, but was dismissed (1968) when he stirred controversy by calling for an end to nonwhite immigration into Britain. He was the leading Conservative opponent to Britain's entry into the European Community and declined to seek reelection in Feb., 1974. He returned to Parliament as an Ulster Unionist from a Northern Ireland constituency in 1974 and held his seat until 1987. He strongly supported the province's continued separation from the Irish Republic.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

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