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Melville Portal

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Melville Portal JP, DL (31 July 1819 – 24 January 1904)[1] was a British Conservative Party politician from Hampshire.

Career

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Portal was educated at Christ Church, Oxford, graduating B.A. in 1842, and M.A. in 1844. In 1841 he was treasurer and in 1842 President of the Oxford Union.[2]

He was elected as a Member of Parliament (MP) for North Hampshire at a by-election in April 1849, following the resignation of the Conservative MP Sir William Heathcote.[3] He was re-elected unopposed[4] in 1852[5] at a sparsely attended hustings in Winchester,[6] and retired from the House of Commons at the 1857 general election.[4]

Portal was appointed in December 1852 as a Deputy Lieutenant of Hampshire,[7] and by 1863 he was also a Justice of the Peace (JP) for the county.[8] He was nominated as High Sheriff of Hampshire in 1861[9][10] and in 1862,[11] and was appointed to the office in 1863,[12] when his address was given as Laverstoke House, Mitcheldever Station.[13]

Melville Portal's lands recorded in the 1870 and 1880s

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According to John Bateman's The Great Landowners of Great Britain and Ireland, 1883, Melville Portal of Laverstoke, Overton, Hampshire, educated at Harrow and Christ Church, Oxford, and a member of the Carlton Club, had 10,966 acres in Hampshire worth 10,922 per annum.[14]

Personal life

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The son of John Portal of Freefolk Priors, Hampshire and his wife Elizabeth Drummond, in 1855 Portal married Lady Charlotte Elliot[15] (died 1899), the first child of the 2nd Earl of Minto.[citation needed] The couple had at least four children, including Sir Gerald Herbert Portal (1858–1894), and Katherine Charlotte Portal (1866–1917).[citation needed] Sir Gerald was a rapidly promoted young diplomat, whose career in Africa led to him contracting malaria, and he died of typhoid in London on 25 January 1894.[15] An older son Captain Melville Raymond Portal died in Africa in 1893 serving under his brother in Kampala- these two sons are to be found in a memorial sculpture in the Cathedral in Winchester. The third son was Alaraic William John Portal, an officer in the Royal Navy.[15]

References

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  1. ^ Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "H" (part 1)
  2. ^ "University Intelligence". The Times. London. 25 October 1844. pp. 7, col B.
  3. ^ "No. 20967". The London Gazette. 13 April 1849. p. 1204.
  4. ^ a b Craig, F. W. S. (1989) [1977]. British parliamentary election results 1832–1885 (2nd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. p. 393. ISBN 0-900178-26-4.
  5. ^ "No. 21345". The London Gazette. 3 August 1852. p. 2130.
  6. ^ "The General Election". The Times. London. 14 July 1852. p. 2.
  7. ^ "No. 21390". The London Gazette. 10 December 1852. p. 3611.
  8. ^ "Prison Discipline And The Hampshire County Magistrates". The Times. London. 6 January 1863. pp. 9, col D.
  9. ^ "No. 22565". The London Gazette. 15 November 1861. p. 4564.
  10. ^ "Nomination Of Sheriffs". The Times. London. 13 November 1861. pp. 6, col F.
  11. ^ "Nomination Of Sheriffs". The Times. London. 13 November 1862. pp. 7, col F.
  12. ^ "Sheriffs For 1863". The Times. London. 4 February 1863. pp. 6, col F.
  13. ^ "No. 22704". The London Gazette. 3 February 1863. p. 573.
  14. ^ Bateman, page 363.
  15. ^ a b c "Death Of Sir Gerald Portal". The Times. London. 26 January 1894. pp. 3, col F.
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Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament for North Hampshire
1849 – 1857
With: Charles Shaw-Lefevre 		Succeeded by


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