Charles Portal, 1st Viscount Portal of Hungerford
Marshal of the Royal Air Force Charles Frederick Algernon Portal, 1st Viscount Portal of Hungerford, KG, GCB, OM, DSO & Bar, MC, DL (21 May 1893 – 22 April 1971) was a senior Royal Air Force officer. He served as a bomber pilot in the First World War, and rose to become first a flight commander and then a squadron commander, flying light bombers on the Western Front.
The Viscount Portal of Hungerford
Peter
21 May 1893
Hungerford, Berkshire
22 April 1971 (aged 77)
West Ashling, West Sussex
United Kingdom
British Army (1914–18)
Royal Air Force (1918–45)
1914–1945
Chief of the Air Staff (1940–46)
Bomber Command (1940)
Air Member for Personnel (1939–40)
Aden Command (1934–35)
No. 7 Squadron (1927–28)
No. 1 Wing (1919)
No. 16 Squadron (1917–18)
In the early stages of the Second World War he was commander-in-chief of Bomber Command. He was an advocate of strategic area bombing against German industrial areas, and viewed it as a war winning strategy. In October 1940 he was made Chief of the Air Staff, and remained in this post for the rest of the war. During his time as Chief he continuously supported the strategic bombing offensive against Germany, and advocated the formation of the Pathfinder Force, critical to improving the destructive force of Bomber Command. He fended off attempts by the Royal Navy to take command over RAF Coastal Command, and resisted attempts by the British Army to establish their own Army Air Arm. Portal retired from the RAF following the end of the war. He served as Controller of Production (Atomic Energy) at the Ministry of Supply for six years. Portal was then made chairman of British Aluminium. He was unsuccessful in fending off a hostile takeover of British Aluminum by Sir Ivan Stedeford's Tube Investments, in what was known as the "Aluminium War". Afterward he served as chairman of the British Aircraft Corporation.
Early life[edit]
Portal was born at Eddington House, Hungerford, Berkshire, the son of Edward Robert Portal and his wife Ellinor Kate (née Hill).[1] His younger brother Admiral Sir Reginald Portal (1894–1983) joined the Royal Navy and also had a distinguished career.[1] The Portals had Huguenot origins, having arrived in England in the 17th century.[2] He was related to the goldsmith and dramatist Abraham Portal, and more distantly so to Wyndham Portal, 1st Viscount Portal.[1]
Charles Portal, or "Peter" as he was nicknamed, was educated at Winchester College and Christ Church, Oxford.[1] Portal had intended to become a barrister but he did not finish his degree and he left undergraduate life to enlist as a private soldier in 1914.[3]
Inter-war career[edit]
In August 1919 Portal was appointed to a permanent commission in the Royal Air Force in the rank of major (shortly afterwards redesignated as a squadron leader).[11] He became a chief flying instructor at the Royal Air Force College Cranwell in November 1919 and then attended RAF Staff College in 1922, before joining the air staff conducting flying operations in the home sector in April 1923.[4] Promoted to wing commander on 1 July 1925,[12] he attended the senior officers' war course at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, in 1926 before taking over No. 7 Squadron flying Vickers Virginia bombers in March 1927[4] and concentrated on improving bombing accuracy.[1]
Portal attended the Imperial Defence College in 1929 and became deputy director of Plans in the Directorate of Operations & Intelligence at the Air Ministry in December 1930.[4] Promoted to group captain on 1 July 1931,[13] he was appointed commander of British forces in Aden in February 1934,[4] in which role he tried to control the local tribesmen by use of an air blockade.[1] Promoted to air commodore on 1 January 1935,[14] he joined the Directing Staff at the Imperial Defence College in January 1936.[4] Portal was promoted to air vice-marshal on 1 July 1937[15] before being appointed Director of Organization at the Air Ministry on 1 September 1937.[16]
Family[edit]
In July 1919, Portal married Joan Margaret Welby (1898–1996); they had a son (who died at birth) and two daughters.[1] The viscountcy died with him but he was succeeded in the barony according to the special remainder by his elder daughter, Rosemary Ann, who died in 1990.[1]