The Honourable William Portman
(1829-1919)

Volume 1, sitting number 724.

Born on 12 July 1829, William Henry Berkeley Portman was the eldest son of Edward Berkley Portman, 1st Viscount Portman of Bryanston and Lady Emma Lascelles.

He was educated at Eton and at Merton, Oxford. He was the MP (Liberal) for Shaftesbury between 1852 and 1857 and the MP (Liberal) for Dorset from 1857 to 1885. He succeeded as 2nd Viscount Portman of Bryanston in the County of Dorset on 19 November 1888. He was appointed a Knight Grand Cross, Royal Victorian Order (GCVO) in 1918.

He married firstly on 21 June 1855, the Honourable Mary Selina Charlotte FitzWilliam, daughter of William Charles FitzWilliam, Viscount Milton. Their marriage produced ten children. On 2 June 1908 he took as his second wife  Frances Maxwell Buchanan Cuninghame, daughter of Boyd Alexander Cuninghame.

Lord Portman died on 16 October 1919 at the age of 90.