Fitzhardinge Portman and Tankerville Chamberlayne

An inked inscription verso in a period hand identifies the sitters as ‘Henry Fitzhardinge Berkeley Portman Esq (sitting) and Tankerville Chamberlayne (lying down).’

Born in 1838 at Child Okeford in Dorset, Henry Fitzhardinge Berkeley Portman was the son of Major Portman of Dean’s Court, Wimborne. He became the Rector of Pylle in Somerset. On 11 October 1866 he married Alice Elizabeth Paine. Their marriage produced one son and one daughter. On 20 April 1887 he married secondly Gertrude Norman. Their marriage produced another two daughters.

Reverend Portman died, aged 86, on 18 November 1924 at Thurlbear in Somerset, leaving an estate valued at £670.

Born in 1843 at Pangbourne in Berkshire, Tankerville Chamberlayne was the second son of Thomas Chamberlayne of Cranbury Park, Hampshire. He was educated at Eton and at Magdalen College, Oxford (BA, 1865). In 1865 an engagement was announced to Lady Jane Turnour, daughter of the Earl of Winterton, but no marriage took place. He married instead, some twenty years later on 11 November 1886, Edith Rachel Ashley of Kidlington, Oxfordshire. Their marriage produced two sons and four daughters.

For most of his life he was content to indulge his enthusiasm for cricket, football, fox hunting and yachting. In 1892 he entered politics as the Conservative MP for Southampton, but was unseated on petition. He had headed a procession through the town that had stopped at various pubs and was consequently found guilty of the corrupt practice of ‘treating’ would-be voters. His disqualification had expired by the time of the 1900 general election and he regained his seat, but was unseated by the Liberal candidate in 1906.

Tankerville Chamberlayne died, aged 82, on 17 May 1924 at Cranbury Park near Winchester. His estate was valued at £178,732.

Photographed by the Southwell Brothers of London.