Enoch Powell, a former Conservative minister whose "rivers of blood" speech against immigration from Britain's former colonies ended his chances of high political office, died yesterday at the age of 85.
"He died at 4.30 this morning. He has had Parkinson's disease for a bit but died comfortably," said Mr Greville Howard, Powell's former private secretary.
A political maverick, Powell was best known for a 1968 speech in which he urged Britain to stop the flow of immigrants from its former colonies. He likened immigration policies to a nation building its own funeral pyre.
"Like the Roman, I seem to see the river Tiber foaming with much blood," he said. Known thereafter as the "rivers of blood" speech, it provoked public outcry.
Then Conservative leader, [now Sir] Edward Heath, denounced the speech as racialist and sacked Powell from his opposition shadow cabinet. It effectively ended his chances at attaining high office even though Powell was considered among the most brilliant minds of his day.
In a 1996 interview, the ageing nationalist boasted that his ideas had finally become common currency. "I have lived into an age in which my ideas are now part of common intuition, part of a common fashion. It has been a great experience, having given up so much, to find that there is now this range of opinion in all classes," he said.
The former prime minister, Baroness Thatcher, has called him "the best parliamentarian I ever knew" and said his speeches always drew hordes to the House of Commons. Yesterday she said: "There will never be another Enoch. He was magnetic."
But he will always be remembered by black Britons for his hostile views on immigration. Trades Union Congress leader Mr Bill Morris, himself black, who was working in Birmingham when Mr Powell made his "rivers of blood" speech there, said: "The effect of his speech was like an earthquake hitting us."
John Enoch Powell was born in Birmingham on June 16th, 1912, the only son of teachers. After a grammar school education, he won a scholarship to Cambridge University to study classics. He was shy, reclusive and scholarly.
In 1937, at the age of 25, he was appointed Professor of Greek at the University of Sydney in Australia. When the second World War began, Powell immediately joined up and at 32 became the army's youngest brigadier.
He entered politics after the war hoping, he said, "to stop the disintegration of the Empire". He was elected a Conservative member of parliament in 1950, beginning a 37-year parliamentary career.
Powell's first important post was as financial secretary to the Treasury in 1957. He resigned in protest at the government's freespending policies. In 1960 he was appointed Minister of Housing.
In 1974, he urged Conservative voters to support the Labour party in a general election, because it opposed membership of the European Community. Later that year he resigned from the Conservatives and stood as an Ulster Unionist for South Down.
The move set Powell's career on an entirely new track. He lost his parliamentary seat in 1987, saying he would commit more time to cultural pursuits, including his own version of the Greek New Testament.
A devoted family man, Powell married Ms Pamela Wilson, once a colleague at Conservative party headquarters, in 1952. They had two daughters.
The British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, said yesterday: "However controversial his views, [Enoch Powell] was one of the great figures of 20th century British politics, gifted with a brilliant mind."
The former Conservative Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr Norman Lamont, paid generous tribute. "Enoch Powell was one of the real giants of contemporary politics, a far bigger man than many who achieved higher office," he said.