Born on the 7th of November 1820, the son of John Portal, Esq., of Freefolk Priors, near Whitchurch, Hampshire, J.P. and Deputy-Lieutenant for Hampshire. His mother was Elizabeth, daughter of Henry Drummond, Esq., of The Grange, near Alresford, Hampshire, and his wife, Ann, daughter of the 1st Earl of Melville.
His family were of Huguenot origin, and had strong links with banking. [See Further information, below.]
Educated at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst.
Ensign in the 83rd Foot: 17th of January 1840.
Lieutenant in the 4th Light Dragoons: 8th of May 1845.
Captain: 9th of June 1846.
On the 19th of February 1856, at the village church of West Ogwell, near Newton Abbot, he married Eliza Taylor, daughter of the late Major-General Thomas W. Taylor, C.B., of Ogwell, Devon, and formerly Lieutenant-Governor of Sandhurst. His best man was Lord George Paget, who had commanded the Fourth Light Dragoons in the Crimea.
An uninvited guest at this wedding (who, the bride noted in her diary, "no one particularly wanted to see") was Lord Cardigan. Neither the bridegroom, Lord George or Captain William Morris of the 17th Lancers, entertained very friendly feelings towards Cardigan. The only person present he did get on with was the bride's father, Major-General Taylor. This fact, also confided to the diary, was because, "they both liked champagne".
Brevet-Major: 6th of June 1856.
Major in the 5th Lancers: 19th of February 1858.
Lieutenant-Colonel: 12th of March 1861, and assumed the command of the regiment.
1861 Census
Surrey, Aldershot, 5th R. I. Lancers and East Cavalry Barracks.
Lieut-Col Robert Portal, 41, Lieut-Col 5th Lancers, born Whitchurch, Hants.
Mrs Eliza C.S. Portal, Wife, 34, Lady, born St John's Wood, London.
Notice the name of Robert Portal's Groom Charles Crane (formerly 747 Charles Crane, 4th Light Dragoons) and his family immediately below.
Charles Crane, Groom, Married, 45, Groom, Chilockford, Dorsetshire
S. Crane, Wife of Groom, Married, 41, Laundress, Hollingband, Kent
S. Crane, Son of Groom, Unmarried, 17, Groom, Ipswich Suffolk
H. Crane, Son of Groom, Unmarried, 11, Scholar, Dublin Ireland
F. Crane, Daughter of Groom, Unmarried, 9, Scholar, Ipswich Suffolk
C. Crane, Son of Groom, Unmarried, 7, Scholar, Dorset, Dorset
F. Crane, Son of Groom, Unmarried, 2, Infant, Newbridge, Ireland
H. Phipps, Visitor to Groom, Unmarried, 12, Scholar, Aldershot, Hants
C. King, Servant to Colonel, Unmarried, 42, Cook, Sanford, Devon
Mrs. Sharpe, Servant to Colonel, Unmarried, 34, Lady's Maid, St Mary, Wilts
J. Mason, Servant to Colonel, Unmarried, 18, Housemaid, Hursley, Hants
E. Enderson, Servant to Colonel, Unmarried, 19, Footman, Bridestowe, Derry
Mrs. Louisa Trotter, Visitor with Colonel, Widow, 54, Lady, Madras, India
Miss Louisa Trotter, Visitor with Colonel, Unmarried, 24, Lady, Edinburgh, Scotland
Miss Mary Trotter, Visitor with Colonel, Unmarried, 20, Lady, Edinburgh, Scotland
H[enrietta]. Crane, Servant to Visitors, Unmarried, 23, Lady's Maid, On Board `The Grenelle'
[PB: The last-named, Henrietta, must be Charles and Susan Crane's child, born en route to India, who seems now to be a servant to the Portals' guests, the Trotter family. Notice the widowed Louisa Trotter was herself born in India.]
Resigned, by the sale of his commission, on the 27th of January 1863.
Major Portal served the Eastern campaign of 1854-55, and was present at the battles of the Alma, Balaclava (horse shot under him in the Light Cavalry Charge), Inkerman, and Sebastopol. He was Aide-de-camp to Lord George Paget during the period when he commanded the Light Cavalry Brigade in the Crimea, including the Expedition to Eupatoria. (Medal and four Clasps, the Sardinian Medal, Turkish Medal and the Order of the Medjidie, 5th Class.)
He rode a horse called "Paddy" [or "Black Paddy"] during the Charge, which received a Minie ball through the fleshy part of the thigh but brought him back.
In a letter to his family Portal said:
"Poor Paddy was shot on the 28th; his wound got so much worse and the pain so great." Of himself, he said he "received no wounds — except a piece of shell which caught me in the back, but it was quite spent, and did not hurt me in the least."
Private Joseph Grigg of the 4th Light Dragoons tells a slightly different story:
Captain Portal, who did not get a wound, rode an Irish horse called "Black Paddy." A large piece of a shell struck it in the shoulder, and directly we got back the poor animal fell dead. The captain had the hoofs cut off and preserved. I saw them some time afterwards beautifully polished, shoes and all.
[Source: "The Charge of the 600", in Told From the Ranks, edited by E Milton Small, 1897.]
After retiring from the Army he went into farming, and bred a well-known herd of Jersey cattle.
He was also a partner in the Laverstoke Banknote Paper Company, an M.P. for Hampshire, and a J.P. for the County.
1881 Census
Ashe Park House, Overton.
The 1881 Census shows him as a Banker, aged 60 years, born at Whitchurch, Hants, with his wife, Eliza C.S., 54, born at St. John's Wood, London.
There were 13 House Servants of various categories shown in the household, but this may have been due to the number of visitors also shown.
Entitled to the Crimean medal with clasps for Alma, Balaclava, Inkerman and Sebastopol, the Turkish Medal, Sardinian War Medal and the Order of the Medjidie (5th Class).
His miniature medals are now (1998) known to be in the Officers Mess of the Royal Irish Hussars and comprise the Crimean medal with four clasps, Turkish Crimea, Sardinian War medal and the 5th Class Turkish Medjidie.
Also with the medals is a full-size Russian medal and ribbon (Imperial double eagle with crown above and Russian inscription on rim) said to have been taken at the battle of the Tchernaya, 16th of August 1855.
[PB: A Crimean medal came up for auction in January 2018 at Humbert & Ellis Ltd, see here.
"A Crimea medal four bar inscribed for Capt. R Portal 4th Dragoons. Footnote; A photo by Roger Fenton (1819-69) in the Royal Collection Trust shows Captain Portal equipped to fight in the Battle of Balaklava. Auctioneer's estimate 250GBP — 300 GBP."
Roy Mills commented (14.1.2018): "The naming [is] not, IMHO, authentic at all. It had all the appearances of an "official" typeface but the spacing [is] all wrong and the regiment expressed in the wrong way. The low selling price fur a medal of this stature speaks volumes..."
He died at Ashe Park House, near Overton, Hampshire, on the 24th of December 1888, and was buried in the churchyard of Holy Trinity and St. Andrew's (15 feet N.E. of the church) at Ashe.
Extract from the Hampshire Advertiser, 2nd of January 1889:
The late Colonel Robert Portal.
On Friday afternoon the funeral of the late Colonel Robert Portal of Ashe Park, Overton, Hampshire, took place in the village churchyard in the presence of a large number of relatives and friends.
The memorial wreaths and crosses were very numerous. [Then follows a list of those present, and wreath-senders.]
The service was conducted by the Red. F. Thoyte, rector of Ashe, and the staff and workmen of the Bank Paper Mills of which the late Colonel Portal was a partner, attended the funeral and the heads of departments carried the coffin from the Rectory to the grave.
His memorial in Ashe churchyard, consisting of a cross on a triple base, bears the following inscription:
"In loving memory of Robert Portal. One of the survivors of the Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava. October 25th 1854. "The Lord knoweth them that trust in him." A few feet away is another gravestone with the inscription: "Grace Portal, aged 12 years. Died October 6th 1878." [Possibly a daughter?]
[PB: Also in the churchyard of Holy Trinity and St. Andrews at Ashe, Hampshire, there is a double grave-plot with iron rails around it near the north east corner of the church with two headstones. That on the left is to the memory of Major-General William Taylor (father-in-law of William Morris), and that on the right bears an inscription to William Morris's wife, and also commemorates WM's death in India eleven years earlier.]
"Amelia Mary Margaret Morris. Born March 15th 1825 — Died August 16th 1869. "Them also that sleep in Jesus will bring God with him." "Also William Morris of Fishleigh, Devon, Lt. Col. 17th Lancers. Husband of the above, who died at Poona in India, July 11th 1858, aged 37 years. He commanded the 17th Lancers in the Balaclava Charge."
Robert Portal's ancestors were Huguenots who came to England shortly before the Revocation, the family name being originally "de Portal".
Jean Francois de Portal settled initially in Southampton with his family, and his youngest son, Henri, was apprenticed to Gerald de Vaux, a refugee from Castres, in Languedoc, who ran a paper-mill at South Stoneham.
Through the friendship of a neighbour, William Heathcote, Henri de Portal had obtained the lease of Bere Mill, where he set up on his own.
In 1718 he expanded and built a new mill at Laverstoke and in 1719 was able to take on his former master's son, John de Vaux, as an apprentice. In 1723, through Mr. Heathcote's uncle, who was Governor of the Bank of England, Henri de Portal contracted to make paper for the Bank of England notes.
This has continued through five generations of the Portal family to the present day [1985].
At his death in 1747 a memorial was erected to him which bears the inscription:
"Henri de Portal. Son of John Francois de Portal and Frances Grimander, his Wife. Naturalised in England, 10th July A.D. 1711 — Died 30th September A.D. 1747. Aged 57.
A Victim, like so many of his Noble House, to the relentless Persecution of the Huguenots in France. He was saved by a faithful Nurse from the soldiers who sought his destruction.
Concealed, with his brothers, first in an Oven, and then in a Wine cask, he was secretly conveyed to the protecting shores of England and became the founder of the Family of de Portal at Laverstoke, whom the Protectors of their Fathers ever preserve.
He married Dorothy, Daughter of Henry Hasker of Overton, Esq., 26th of December A.D. 1715, who died 29th October 1784, aged 89.
By her he left issue, several daughters and one Son, Joseph, who succeeded him."
Portal photograph(s)?
Portal Letters [copy in EJBA]
Portal refs in memoirs etc
Ancestry.co.uk search:
RP's marriage certificate:
Date: 19 February 1856. He is Captain 4LD. Eliza Charlotte Lleech [sic? Sleech?] Taylor. Both resident Cheltenham. His father's rank or profession is "Esq.". Her father is a Maj. General. Notice witnesses include Taylors and Portals. "By special licence"?
1881 Census
R.P. is 60. His wife is Eliza C.S. Portal, 54, born St John's Wood, Middlesex. There are a number of records to follow up.
Notice an unmarried daughter, E.A.Portal, aged 18.
And a niece, 19, with the surname "Taylor" — presumably a relative of William Morris's wife?
This looks interesting (:
There are various references to the Portal family online, e.g.
http://www.hampshire-history.com/henry-portal-1690-1747-paper-maker/
Does M.J.Trow, Pocket Hercules, discuss?
Tony Margrave, Crimean War Newsletter, No. 105 (February, 2018)
Overland again. For those of you with a passing interest in the time it took to travel between London and Constantinople overland on the London — Folkestone — Boulogne — Paris — Marseilles — Constantinople route, I have now found an authentic timing for a Channel crossing and two accounts of a rail trip from Marseilles to Paris.
Our first account appears in Notes by the way-side, on a tour for health and recreation, on the sea, in England, France, and Belgium, by George Smith Fisher, published in 1858. Fisher travelled from Dover to Calais (not Boulogne) but having done these two Channel trips myself many times over the years, I doubt the time Dover / Calais was materially different from the Folkestone / Boulogne time.
In 1857, George Smith and his party took the South Eastern Railway for Dover. He does not say when he left London but following arrival at 12 a.m., there was a four hour wait till 4 when they took the "Queen" to Calais, and two and a half hours later she was moored at the Calais wharf where "The Customs-house officers took about half an hour to make their examination, which they conducted in a polite and gentlemanly manner, [and] looked at and recorded our passports..."
After spending the night at "Maurice's Hotel" they entrained for Paris — "... we took the early morning express train and in nine hours we reached Paris and distance of two hundred miles, considerably tired". [1]
Our second account appears in the diary of Captain Robert Portal of the 4th Light Dragoons who returned home in December 1855 after service at Eupatoria with the Light Brigade. 1
- December 14, 1855. Boarded, Constantinople, at 4 p.m. Set off at about 6 p.m.
- December 15, arrive at Gallipoli about 7 a.m. It was "snowing hard and so thick we cannot how down the Dardanelles"
- December 16, 1855. Left early this morning for Smyrna "the weather having got warm
- December 17. Arrive at Smyrna early and go ashore to shop. Leave at three for Syra.
- December 18. Reach Syra at 8 a.m. Leave at 11 for Malta.
- December 21. Steam into harbour about 7 p.m. Land at 11 and after some difficulty obtain some rooms at the Imperial Hotel.
- December 22. Leave at 11 a.m.
- December 24. Pass through the Strait of Bonifacio between Corsica and Sardinia.
- December 25. Reach Marseilles at 12 o'clock. Pop in to the "Hotel Colonai" for a warm bath and then it's the 5.30 p.m train for Paris.
[NOTE THAT. A train on Christmas day.]
- December 26. Arrive at 7 a.m. Miss the 7.30 to Calais by 1 minute! And so over-night in Paris.
- December 27. Leave 7 a.m for Calais. Portal ends his account here but reverting to Smith's journey two years later one assumes Portal arrived at Calais at 4 p.m and would have got across the Channel to Dover in time to reach London by train late that same day. [2]
We have therefore a 13 days' journey time from Constantinople to London including one lost day through inclement weather. We have 2 days from Marseilles to London, which might have been reduced to one day but for the missed link. Not bad going for the time.
Captain Portal was travelling with three other officers of the 4th. He does not name them but five officers of the 4th were on leave of absence from December 15.
In addition to Portal we have Captains H. S. Adlington and the Hon. Charles Keith, Lieutenant George W. Hunt, and Paymaster George T. George. [3]
It does not appear they were returning with him since having missed the train he wrote he returned "to the other officers at the hotel."
A third account appears in George Buchanan's Camp Life as seen by a Civilian A Personal Narrative, published in 1871.
Buchanan was a civilian surgeon engaged to work at Renkioi. He went out in the summer of 1855 and found there was so little to do that he was able to sight-see in the Crimea, but he was one of a handful of civilian surgeons from Smyrna and Renkioi, who went to the Crimea after the fall of Sebastopol to serve in the hospitals.
His time in the Crimea was cut-short for family reasons. He and a colleague took ship to Marseilles where they anchored at 6 p.m. on November 1.
Next morning they took the rail to Paris. "Crimean Heroes" travelled at half price. He does not say when they set out but they were at Lyon by 10 p.m., which gave them sufficient time to have a meal before resuming the journey to arrive at Paris at 5 a.m. on the 2nd. [4]
Tony Margrave February 28, 2018
1. George Smith Fisher, Notes by the way-side, on a tour for health and recreation, on the sea, in England, France, and Belgium, 1858, p.160, 161, 162.
2. Captain Robert Portal, 4th Light Dragoons, Diary June 18 to December 27, 1855, Hampshire Record Office, 6A08 A9.
3. Muster Roll, 4th Light Dragoons, TNA, WO12/660.
4. George Buchanan, Camp Life as seen by a Civilian: A Personal Narrative, Glasgow, 1871, p. 289