Charles Portal, 1st Viscount Portal of Hungerford

Marshal of the Royal Air Force The Right Honourable

The Viscount Portal of Hungerford

KG, GCB, OM, DSO & Bar, MC, DL
Marshal of the Royal Air Force The Right Honourable; The Viscount Portal of Hungerford; KG, GCB, OM, DSO & Bar, MC, DL
	Sir Charles Portal as an air chief marshal
Nickname(s)	Peter
Born	21 May 1893; Hungerford, Berkshire
Died	22 April 1971 (aged 77); West Ashling, West Sussex
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	British Army (1914–18); Royal Air Force (1918–45)
Years of service	1914–1945
Rank	Marshal of the Royal Air Force
Commands held	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)
Battles/wars	First World War; Second World War
Awards	Knight Companion of the Order of the Garter; Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath; Member of the Order of Merit; Distinguished Service Order & Bar; Military Cross; Mentioned in Despatches (3)

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.

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.