 He then worked for the Bodleian Library under E. W. B. Nicholson from 1895 until in 1901 when he joined the group of scholars working on the "New English Dictionary" under William Craigie.Powell married Ethelwyn Rebecca (1873/4−1941) on 31 July 1909; they had one son.Upon the outbreak of the Great War in 1914, Powell was declared unfit for active service but he joined the Admiralty two years later.