Walter Powell (17 April 1842 – 10 December 1881) was a Welsh colliery owner and

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politician who sat in the

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from 1868 to 1881. He was carried out over the

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in a balloon and never seen again.

Early life and education

Powell was the son of Thomas Powell of

Newport, Monmouthshire Newport ( cy, Casnewydd; ) is a city and county borough in Wales, situated on the River Usk close to its confluence with the Severn Estuary, northeast of Cardiff. With a population of 145,700 at the 2011 census, Newport is the third-largest au ...

and his wife Anne Williams, daughter of Walter Williams. His father had interests in coal, railways and shipping and was one of the world's largest coal producers in the 1840s. His company now operates under the name of Powell Duffryn plc in the areas of ports and engineering, although the coal and railway interests were nationalised in the 1940s. Powell was the youngest of three brothers and had three sisters. He was educated at

Rugby School Rugby School is a public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) in Rugby, Warwickshire, England. Founded in 1567 as a free grammar school for local boys, it is one of the oldest independent schools in Britain. Up ...

and continued in the family business. In 1869 he had to journey to Africa to take care of family matters after the murders of his brother Thomas and Thomas's wife and son by robbers on a trip to

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. Powell was a J.P. for

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

. His great interest was ballooning. This interest developed in the late 1870s and he began studying ballooning with Henry Coxwell, one of the leading balloonists of the day. Eventually Powell made his own ascents and had a balloon of his own, the ''Eclipse''.

Member of Parliament

At the 1868 general election Powell was elected

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for

Malmesbury Malmesbury () is a town and civil parish in north Wiltshire, England, which lies approximately west of Swindon, northeast of Bristol, and north of Chippenham. The older part of the town is on a hilltop which is almost surrounded by the up ...

, Wiltshire. He held the seat until his disappearance and presumed death from a balloon accident at the age of 39 in 1881.

Disappearance

The

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had borrowed a balloon called ''Saladin'' from the

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. On 10 December 1881, Powell accompanied Captain Templer and Mr A. Agg-Gardner, brother of James Agg-Gardner MP, in an ascent at

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. The balloon was carried over

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and then into

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. The crew tried to descend near

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but the balloon hit the ground so hard that Templer was thrown out. As a result, the balloon rose again; Agg-Gardner fell out from a height of about eight feet and broke his leg, and Powell, remaining in the car, was swept out to sea to the southeast. He was last seen waving his hand to Captain Templer. It seemed likely that he might have crashed into the

, and a search was made for three days. The beaches on England's southern coast were combed for washed-up wreckage or clues, but neither Powell nor the balloon were recovered. The

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to replace him as MP for Malmesbury was held on 7 March 1882.

Memorials

In 1982, when a new primary school was built to serve the Wiltshire villages of

Great Somerford Great Somerford is a village and civil parish within Dauntsey Vale, Wiltshire, England,OS Explorer Map 156, Chippenham and Bradford-on-Avon, Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher: Ordnance Survey A2 edition (2007). near the south bank of the river Avon. ...

and Little Somerford, it was named Somerfords' Walter Powell Primary School.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Powell, Walter 1842 births 1880s missing person cases 1881 deaths 19th-century Welsh businesspeople British businesspeople in the coal industry Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Malmesbury Missing air passengers Missing person cases in Europe People educated at Rugby School People lost at sea UK MPs 1868–1874 UK MPs 1874–1880 UK MPs 1880–1885 Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in the United Kingdom Welsh politicians