Lord Portal of Hungerford - Embankment, London, UK
N 51° 30.252 W 000° 07.424
30U E 699612 N 5709819
A statue of Lord Portal of Hungerford by Oscar Nemon.
Waymark Code: WMC96C
Location: London, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 08/11/2011
Views: 7
In front of the Ministry of
Defence Building is the Victoria Embankment Gardens (Whitehall Extension). This
garden contains several statues, mainly related to service in the air. Lord
Portal was an Air Marshall during Word War II so this is a fitting location for
his memorial.
The statue stands on a triangular-shaped plinth that is grey/green in colour and
is rough stone. Just above the base, on the eastern side, is a strip of smoothed
stone that has the simple inscription "Lord Portal of Hungerford".
Discovering information about this memorial is difficult. The statue is about
150% life-size and is probably cast from bronze but is done in a very rough
nature. Lord Portal can be seen in his RAF uniform and is posed looking to the
skies over London.
Overview
Marshal of the Royal Air Force Charles Frederick Algernon Portal, 1st Viscount
Portal of Hungerford KG GCB OM DSO & Bar MC (21 May 1893 - 22 April 1971) was a
senior Royal Air Force officer and an advocate of strategic bombing. He was the
British Chief of the Air Staff during most of the Second World War.
Early life and career
Charles Portal was born 21 May 1893 in Hungerford, England, and was educated at
Winchester College and Christ Church, Oxford, although he did not finish his
degree.
At the beginning of World War I, Portal joined the British Army and served as a
dispatch rider in the motorcycle section of the Royal Engineers on the Western
Front. In December 1914 he was given command of all riders in the 1st Corps
Headquarters Signals Company.
First World War
In 1915 Portal transferred to the Royal Flying Corps, serving first as an
observer and eventually a flying officer. He reached the rank of lieutenant
colonel and earned the Military Cross. In April 1918 he became an officer in the
new Royal Air Force, following the Royal Flying Corps' merger with the Royal
Naval Air Service.
After the war, he took over No. 7 Squadron RAF and concentrated on improving
bombing accuracy. In 1934 he was appointed commander of British forces in Aden,
where he tried to control the local tribesmen by air power. In January 1935 he
was promoted to Air Commodore and in July 1937] to Air Vice-Marshal.
Second World War
By 1939 Portal was a member of the air council and Director of Organization in
the Air Ministry. Just prior to outbreak of the Second World War, he was ordered
to establish 30 new air bases in Britain. At the outbreak of the war in
September he was made Acting Air Marshal and in April 1940 commander-in-chief of
RAF Bomber Command.
Portal advocated strategic area bombing against German industrial areas instead
of bombing of specific factories or plants. He gave the first order to bomb
Berlin on 25 August 1940. The result was that Hermann Göring ordered the
Luftwaffe to bomb London instead of British airfields. The Blitz had begun.
Prime Minister Winston Churchill was impressed with Portal's strategy and Portal
was knighted in July 1940.
In October 1940, Portal was appointed as Chief of the Air Staff with the rank of
Air Chief Marshal and became involved with the controversy over the Big Wing
that resulted in Hugh Dowding's removal as the head of Fighter Command. He
concentrated on improving bomber navigation systems and bombing aids and
increasing the power of the bombs themselves.
In August 1941 he received a report of the relative inefficiency of RAF daytime
raids and proposed area bombing by night. To implement his directive he replaced
the chief of bomber command, Air Chief Marshal Richard Peirse, with Arthur
Harris.
Portal accompanied Churchill to all the conferences and made a good impression
on Americans. In January 1943, at the Casablanca Conference, the Combined Chiefs
of Staff selected him to coordinate the bomber forces of both the United States
and Britain in a combined bomber offensive over Germany. The forces were
transferred to U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower for the duration of Operation
Overlord; but when their control reverted to the Combined Chiefs, Portal still
advocated area bombing of German cities instead of specific targets.
In June 1944 Portal was promoted to Marshal of the Royal Air Force and in
February 1945 he was one of the senior commanders present at the Yalta
Conference. In early 1944 Portal's view of strategic bombing changed; he felt
that bombers should play a more auxiliary role in Allied offensive. In this he
disagreed with Sir Arthur Harris, an advocate of heavy-duty strategic bombing,
who forced Portal to back down. In March 1945 Churchill gave the final order to
stop area bombing.
Retirement
In 1945, after the war's end, Portal retired from the RAF and in August was
created Baron Portal of Hungerford, of Hungerford in the County of Berks, and a
year later Viscount Portal of Hungerford, with the same territorial designation.
From 1946-1951 he was Controller of Production (Atomic Energy) at the Ministry
of Supply.
He was elected Chairman of British Aluminium and in 1958/9 he fought in the City
of London's "Aluminium War" against a hostile takeover bid by Sir Ivan Stedeford,
Chairman & CEO of Tube Investments. T.I. along with its ally Reynolds Metals of
the US, won the takeover battle, and in the process, rewrote the way the City of
London conducted its business in relation to shareholders and investors.
Stedeford replaced Portal as Chairman of British Aluminium.
In 1960 Portal was elected chairman of the British Aircraft Corporation.
Lord Portal of Hungerford died on 22 April 1971. His Viscountcy became extinct,
but his Barony, which had been created with a special remainder, passed to his
daughter Rosemary.
Text source:
Biographicon