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Name: PORTMAN, Gerald William Berkeley, Viscount

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Nee: 8th Viscount Portman of Bryanston

Birth Date: 20 Aug 1903 Burton on Stather, Lincold

Death Date: 3 Nov 1967 Bryanstone, Dorset

First Date: 1926

Profession: Company director. Memoirs of Maurice B. Tennent - 1926 - Bought a farm at Lumbwa from Mrs Lee Mellor in partnership with Butler, Ney, and Beresford Tennent. Later (1928) bought himself a farm at Gilgil

Area: Lumbwa, Gilgil

Married: 1. In London 27 Jan 1926 Marjorie Josephine Bentley Gerrard (div. 1946) 2. In London 1946 Nancy Maureen Franklin d. 1998

Children: None

Book Reference: EAWL, Mischief, Debrett, Red 31, Hut, Burke, Rift Valley

War Service: Capt. RASC 1940-45

School: Eton and RMC Sandhurst

General Information:

Memoirs of Maurice B. Tennent - 'Lord Portman. who had become the fourth partner as already stated, I had met when he came to stay at the same hotel as myself at Eastbourne, England together with his newly wedded wife. They were expected to be arriving at any time now at 'Chepsioni'. There was a small bungalow not far off into which I was going to move for the convenience of Mr & Mrs Portman. ........…..
Whereas I had arrived in June, Portman had arrived on 'Chepsioni' only a month later and he had got busy immediately in building a very adequate house for himself and his wife, so that I was left carrying on with the farming business whilst he was left exclusively attending to his rather palatial sized house. By this time also the four original partners (Portman, Ney, Butler, Beresford Tennent) had been bought out and Portman and I were left sharing the farm on a 50/50 basis. Would that it could have remained like that, but, Mrs Portman was a person much more inclined to a London life in Portman Square than a life in primitive Kenya with the result that Portman asked me if I would buy him out. The price he was asking was very reasonable and gave him no profit and I accepted it, though it entailed raising a mortgage and I found myself in debt for the first time in my life. ....'  
Mischief - at dinner at Muthaiga with Broughton etc on the night of Erroll's murder .......... On the eve of the preliminary hearing Gerry Portman was found naked, beaten unconscious, lying at the foot of a staircase in his own house ....... he had been clubbed on the head by the irate husband of his African maid, whom he had tried to seduce.
Debrett - formerly Capt. RASC
Rift Valley - Member of the Rift Valley Sports Club - Jan 1929 - Elected - 26 Apr 1927 - Hon. G.W.L. Portman [sic]

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