Wife of Enoch Powell recalled as '˜absolutely charming' following death

The wife of former South Down MP Enoch Powell, Pamela Powell, has died at her home in London aged 91.
Enoch and Pamela PowellEnoch and Pamela Powell
Enoch and Pamela Powell

The pair met while working at the Conservative Central Office, and they married in 1952.

Sir Jeffrey Donaldson was appointed Enoch Powell’s election agent for the 1983 general election, when the former Tory member for Wolverhamption South West was re-elected as the Ulster Unionist MP for South Down.

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He has fond memories of Pam Powell and their time spent together.

Sir Jeffrey said she was a frequent visitor to the home her husband kept in Loughbrickland, and that he “got to know her very well”.

He said: “I have some very happy memories of Pam spending time in the constituency, especially during the Easter break and in the summertime when she would have organised picnics for Enoch and we would have gone off up into the Mournes when he would have been doing constituency visits.

“She was an absolutely charming lady and totally supportive of her husband and committed to his work as a member of Parliament.

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“She was somebody who had a very easy way and communicated so well with members of the party in South Down. She was very highly thought of by everyone she met.”

Enoch Powell served as MP for South Down between 1974 and 1987.

He died in 1998 aged 85.

Following Mrs Powell’s death on Saturday, the Daily Mail reported she had been suffering an illness for some time, but was able to return to her home in Pimlico to be cared for by the couple’s two daughters, Susan and Jennifer.

“Throughout the problems and difficulties they faced, Pam provided wonderful, down-to-earth support,” a close friend of the Powell’s told the newspaper.

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According to the Daily Telegraph obituary, Mrs Powell Pam Powell had two main ambitions on leaving school in 1942: it said “she wanted to marry ‘an interesting man,’ and she was determined to ‘get into the war.’ Succeeding in both objectives, she joined that unique cadre of political wives who devoted everything to sustaining their husbands not just out of love, but also as a patriotic obligation”.

Enoch Powell’s expected rise to high political office was ended when he made his anti-immigration ‘rivers of blood’ speech in 1968.