The Lord Portal Collection - A High-Command Library from the Second World War

Arch Books is pleased to offer a newly catalogued group of books, photographs, signed material and presentation copies from the library of Marshal of the Royal Air Force Charles Portal, 1st Viscount Portal of Hungerford, Winston Churchill’s wartime Chief of the Air Staff.

Portal was one of the most important British military figures of the Second World War. As Chief of the Air Staff from 1940 to 1945, he stood at the summit of British air power during the decisive years of the conflict, advising Churchill directly and helping to shape the air strategy that became one of the principal instruments of Allied victory. Fine Books & Collections recently featured the collection, describing it as material from “one of the most important British military figures of the Second World War”.

The collection now offered by Arch Books is remarkable not only for the individual names it contains, but for the coherence of the group as a whole. These are not isolated military books. They are presentation copies, signed copies, photographs and association items that trace Portal’s connections with the highest levels of British and Allied command: Churchill, de Gaulle, Montgomery, Marshall, Prince Philip, the Polish Air Force, American air power, RAF remembrance and the post-war strategic world.

Churchill’s Air Chief

Charles Portal became Chief of the Air Staff in October 1940 and remained in that position throughout the war. His tenure placed him at the centre of British military decision-making during the Battle of Britain aftermath, the bomber offensive, the development of Anglo-American air strategy, and the major Allied conferences that shaped the conduct of the war.

Among the most striking pieces in the collection is a signed portrait of Winston Churchill, photographed by Edward Steichen in New York in 1932. Taken during Churchill’s so-called wilderness years, before his return to office and before his wartime premiership, the portrait gains particular resonance through its later Portal provenance. Portal would become the air chief responsible for turning high political direction into the practical machinery of air power.

The portrait links two central figures in Britain’s wartime command structure: Churchill, the political leader, and Portal, the professional head of the Royal Air Force.

A Paper Trail Through Allied Command

The Portal collection is especially compelling because it reveals the relationships that existed at the summit of Allied military life. Its presentation copies and association items connect Portal with the men and institutions that directed the war and shaped the world that followed.

General George C. Marshall’s final wartime report as U.S. Army Chief of Staff is specially bound for Portal in black morocco-grain leather, gilt-stamped with the arms of the United States and Portal’s name. Marshall was America’s principal army strategist; Portal was Britain’s principal air chief. The volume is a physical emblem of the Anglo-American command structure that lay behind Allied victory.

Fine Books & Collections highlighted the Marshall report as one of the leading items in the sale, noting that both Marshall and Portal operated at the highest level of Allied decision-making.

The American air dimension is further represented by H. H. “Hap” Arnold’s Global Mission, inscribed to Portal. Arnold, Commanding General of the U.S. Army Air Forces, was one of the chief architects of American air power, making his association with Portal especially significant.

De Gaulle, Free France and Liberation

Another major highlight is Charles de Gaulle’s signed set of Mémoires de Guerre. The three-volume set comprises first editions in the original French, with the third volume, Le Salut: 1944-1946, signed by de Gaulle in blue ink and dated 7 November 1959.

The association between de Gaulle and Portal evokes London exile, Free France, D-Day, liberation and the restoration of French authority after occupation. As an object, the set links two figures who stood at very different but deeply connected points within the Allied cause: de Gaulle as the embodiment of Free France, and Portal as Britain’s wartime Chief of the Air Staff.

Montgomery and Portal

A particularly personal British high-command association appears in Sir John Smyth’s Bolo Whistler, presented by Field Marshal Montgomery to Lord Portal. The copy is inscribed “To Peter from Bernard”, using Portal’s familiar name.

Montgomery contributed the foreword to the volume and later served as Chief of the Imperial General Staff. The copy therefore links the post-war professional head of the British Army with the wartime professional head of the Royal Air Force. Its informal inscription gives the item a personal warmth that contrasts with the scale of the historical offices involved.

The Polish Air Force and Gratitude in Exile

One of the most moving items in the collection is M. Lisiewicz’s Destiny Can Wait: The Polish Air Force in the Second World War, specially bound and presented to Portal by Polish airmen. The inscription reads:

“To Marshal of the Royal Air Force / The Viscount Portal of Hungerford / with gratitude / from / Polish Airmen. / 30th November 1949.”

Portal contributed the foreword to the book, and this copy stands as a collective act of thanks from Polish airmen whose wartime service took place within the wider RAF command structure. It is both a presentation copy and a memorial object, preserving the gratitude of a displaced fighting force that played an important role in Britain’s wartime air defence and offensive operations.

The Battle of Britain Remembered

The RAF and remembrance element of the collection is represented by Group Captain Tom Gleave and F. E. Dymond’s They Fell in the Battle: A Roll of Honour of The Battle of Britain, issued by the Royal Air Force Museum in 1980.

This large-format memorial volume was produced in a highly limited form. The Portal copy is number 2 of 15 presentation copies and is signed beneath the foreword by Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, as Marshal of the Royal Air Force. The book commemorates the 435 pilots and 63 crew members of the RAF and Fleet Air Arm who lost their lives during the Battle of Britain.

For collectors of RAF history, Battle of Britain material and royal presentation copies, the volume combines rarity, institutional importance, remembrance and distinguished provenance.

Why Provenance Matters

In rare book collecting, provenance is often the difference between an interesting copy and an important one. A book from the library of Lord Portal is not simply another copy of a military memoir or official report. It is a copy that passed through the hands, library or circle of one of the principal British commanders of the Second World War.

That is what makes the Lord Portal Collection so significant. Its value lies in the accumulation of associations: Churchill and Portal; Marshall and Portal; de Gaulle and Portal; Montgomery and Portal; Polish airmen and Portal; Prince Philip and the RAF; American air power and British high command.

Together, the books and photographs form a paper trail through Churchill’s war rooms, Allied conferences, air strategy, Free France, the Polish Air Force in Britain, RAF remembrance and the post-war question of how air power would shape the modern world.

The Lord Portal Collection at Arch Books

The Lord Portal Collection is now available through Arch Books.

For collectors of Second World War history, Churchilliana, RAF history, presentation copies, signed military books, association copies, Allied command material and wartime provenance, this is an exceptional group.

Enquiries are welcome.

Arch Rare Books & Antique Prints
Guy@archbooks.co.uk
+44 (0) 7787 424184