Enoch Powell’s amazing WWII career
When people remember Enoch Powell today, if at all, it is as an anti-immigration Tory politician in Britain.
When people remember Enoch Powell today, if at all, it is as an anti-immigration Tory politician in Britain.
He surely was that. But behind that stands an extraordinary life. He became a full professor of classical studies at age 25, the youngest such in the British Empire. He enlisted in the British Army in World War II and rose to brigadier, and was briefly the youngest brigadier in the British Army. He also became ferociously anti-American during the course of the war, especially after serving alongside American officers in Algiers. (Speaking of anti-Americanism, did members of Congress cross a red line by receiving information from Israeli officials that was obtained by spying on the U.S.-Iran talks?)
I spent a couple of hours the other day reading about his military career. When he was a private soldier in training, after hours he would teach himself Russian and then read the Bible in Greek. Later, when he was a brigadier, he was surprised that his Indian counterpart was refused entry to the Byculla Club in Poona, where he was staying. So Powell moved out of the club and into the place where the Indian brigadier was staying.
Allan Warren/Wikimedia Commons
More from Foreign Policy


Can Russia Get Used to Being China’s Little Brother?
The power dynamic between Beijing and Moscow has switched dramatically.


Xi and Putin Have the Most Consequential Undeclared Alliance in the World
It’s become more important than Washington’s official alliances today.


It’s a New Great Game. Again.
Across Central Asia, Russia’s brand is tainted by Ukraine, China’s got challenges, and Washington senses another opening.


Iraqi Kurdistan’s House of Cards Is Collapsing
The region once seemed a bright spot in the disorder unleashed by U.S. regime change. Today, things look bleak.