Portal's World War I Experience, 1915-1918 (Charles Frederick Portal) (Essay‪)‬

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Charles Frederick Portal, later 1st Viscount of Hungerford (1893-1971), had just completed his second year at Christ Church, Oxford, when World War I began. A keen motorcyclist, having represented Oxford University against Cambridge in a motorcycling contest in May 1914, he enlisted in the Royal Engineers as a dispatch rider, was commissioned a few weeks later, and transferred to the Royal Flying Corps in 1915. He went on to fly hundreds of missions and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Military Cross. A lieutenant colonel commanding a training wing at the end of the war, he opted to remain in the Royal Air Force. From 1940 to 1945, Portal was Chief of Air Staff, that is, professional head of the Royal Air Force, and a key member of the Chiefs of Staff Committee advising Prime Minister Winston Churchill.