Bertram Portal was born into a wealthy family, famous for their mill at Laverstoke in North Hampshire which made banknote paper for the Bank of England.
The youngest of three sons, he was destined for an army career. Graduating from Sandhurst in 1885, he joined the 17th Lancers Cavalry Regiment at Lucknow in India. He was awarded a D.S.O. in the Boer War, which paved the way to promotion, and he commanded his regiment in Edinburgh and India until 1907.
Portal then left the army and lived as a country gentleman, devoting himself to his home village of Overton until 1914 when he was called up as a Reserve Officer to command a training brigade in Ireland. He commanded the mobile column in the readiness at the Curragh near Dublin when the Easter Rising broke out in 1916 and he played a major role in its suppression. Portal-s diary of events reveals important new information about the British response.
His exploits did not go unnoticed: he was promoted and served on
