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.

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.

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