The Chairman welcomed club members and visitors to the 514th meeting of Henley Probus Club and ,following a short business update including reports from the Treasurer and Secretary, there was a minute’s silence while all members reflected on the recent and sudden death of our ex-Chairman Tony Brown.
The Chairman then introduced our guest speaker Luke S. Degan who gave a talk entitled “ Enoch – – – What a Man”. The talk, assisted by a detailed slide presentation ,covered the life of Enoch Powell who was a very prominent politician and scholar.
He was born in Birmingham in 1912 , attended King Edward’s School before going to Trinity College, Cambridge. He became an excellent multilingual scholar who acquired many educational awards and honours including a Professor at University of Sydney at the age of 35. He joined the army in 1939 and became an MBE in 1943.He entered politics in 1950 and became Conservative MP for Wolverhampton; it was at this stage that he started to become known as a very controversial character- it was 1968 that he gave his famous Rivers of Blood speech.
His views on immigration ,anti EEC and common market made him very unpopular in the conservative party leading to his ‘defection’ to the Ulster Unionist Party. Many of the concerns he expressed are still major concerns today. Enoch Powell died of Parkinson’s disease in 1988, age 85.
The talk concluded with questions from the audience followed by a very warm message of thanks and appreciation from Club members.