Portal was born on May 21, 1893, at Eddington House, Hungerford, Berkshire, the son of Edward Robert Portal and his wife Ellinor Kate (née Hill). His younger brother Admiral Sir Reginald Portal joined the Royal Navy and also had a distinguished career. The Portals had Huguenot origins, having arrived in England in the 17th century.
Charles Portal, or "Peter" as he was nicknamed, was educated at Winchester College and Christ Church, Oxford. Portal had intended to become a barrister but he did not finish his degree and he left undergraduate life to enlist as a private soldier in 1914.
At the outbreak of World War I he joined the Royal Engineers as a dispatch rider, and in 1915 was commissioned as an observer in the Royal Flying Corps (as it was then called). He later became a pilot and in 1917 was awarded the D. S. O. with bar and the M. C. By the end of the war in 1918 he was a colonel in the Royal Air Force. He served on the air staff in 1923 and again from 1930 to 1934. In 1934 he was given the command of Aden, and then served in India. He was an instructor at the Imperial Defence College from 1936 to 1937 when he became air vice marshal and director of organization at the Air Ministry. In March 1940 he took over the Bomber Command of the R. A. F. , and from that date until 1945 was chief of the air staff. Much of the success of the bombing tactics of the R. A. F. must be credited to Portal. He was knighted in 1940, appointed chief marshal of the Royal Air Force in 1941, and made a baron in 1945 and viscount in 1946. He was awarded the Order of Merit in 1946. He served as controller of atomic energy at the ministry of supply from 1946 to 1951 and became chairman of the British Aircraft Corporation in 1960.
In 1945, after the war's end, Portal retired from the RAF and on 12 October 1945 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Portal of Hungerford in the County of Berkshire, with remainder, failing male issue of his own, to his daughters and their male heirs. On 8 February 1946 he was further honoured when he was made Viscount Portal of Hungerford, in the County of Berkshire, with normal remainder to his heirs male. He was made a Member of the Order of Merit on 1 January 1946. He was also awarded the American Distinguished Service Medal on 15 March 1946 and appointed a Knight Grand Cross of the Dutch Order of Orange-Nassau on 18 November 1947. He was also appointed a Knight Grand Cross of the Belgian Order of the Crown with Palm and awarded the Belgian Croix de Guerre, 1940, with Palm on 27 August 1948.
From 1946 to 1951, Portal was Controller of Production (Atomic Energy) at the Ministry of Supply. Christopher Hinton, responsible for the production of fissile material, said later, "I cannot remember that he ever did anything that helped us. " He attended the funeral of King George VI in February 1952 and the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in June 1953.
Portal was elected Chairman of British Aluminium and in 1958/1959 he fought in the City of London's "Aluminium War" against a hostile takeover bid by Sir Ivan Stedeford, Chairman and Chief Executive of Tube Investments. T. I. along with its ally Reynolds Metals of the US, won the takeover battle, and in the process, rewrote the way the City of London conducted its business in relation to shareholders and investors. Stedeford replaced Portal as Chairman of British Aluminium. In 1960 Portal was elected chairman of the British Aircraft Corporation.
In July 1919, Portal married Joan Margaret Welby; they had a son (who died at birth) and two daughters.
