Book Review: Sir Charles Portal

Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Charles Portal

Richard Milburn

Review by Geoff Simpson

Air World 2023

ISBN: 978 1 39904 439 4

232 pages, hardback

Richard Milburn rightly points out that, although Charles “Peter” Portal led the RAF for much of the Second World War, his name has not lasted well in the public consciousness. Senior officers who served under him, such as Dowding and Harris, have had much more attention. Portal would, I imagine, be reasonably content with this state of affairs. He was a modest and reserved man. He did receive due honour when the fighting was done. He died in 1971 as Viscount Portal of Hungerford with the rare “privilege” that his elder daughter could inherit his barony.

Milburn aims to counter this neglect with a most interesting volume concentrating on Portal, the military man and addressing his relations with other great men of the war, Churchill, Brooke, Tedder, Arnold and Harris. So seven of the chapters cover the subject of Portal and one of these other leaders.

This is by no means a biography in the normal sense and the author stresses that he does not seek to replace the outstanding and comprehensive account of Portal’s life produced by Denis Richards in 1977. It is now getting on for half a century since Richards wrote his book and a successor to him, taking account of all the material which has become available in those years, is therefore still awaited.

With this volume Richard Milburn has made a contribution to the study of leadership in war. His work will, I imagine, be much consulted and will frequently appear in the footnotes and bibliographies of other people’s efforts. His approach is academic but accessible. We can follow in his footsteps through his own footnotes.

I wonder if he was correct to give extensive summaries of the careers of the seven sub-subjects at the opening of their chapters. The information is readily obtainable elsewhere and there is the danger that the work of simplification will lead to mistakes. In the Portal and Churchill chapter, as an example, there is the remarkable claim that, with the launch of the German offensive on 10 May 1940, “Chamberlain’s political career was over”. Death ended that considerable career six months later but in the meantime Neville Chamberlain served as Lord President of the Council in Churchill’s government, was a member of the war cabinet and remained leader of the Conservative Party. In some circumstances, he could have, had he wished, destroyed Churchill’s premiership.

The difficulty then arises that, with the summaries removed, the publisher’s required word count would not have been met. Some of Portal’s staff found his reserved nature, and the resultant difficulty in getting close to him, a significant day-to-day- challenge. If studies of one or two of those relationships had been included we would have had a more rounded, if less focussed, picture.

A few small errors, have survived the editing process. As one instance, the author Hilary St George Saunders becomes “George Saunders”.

These relatively minor grumbles should not deter potential readers from seeking the book out.