Sir Henry Norman, 1st Baronet

The Right Honourable
Sir Henry Norman
PC
In office
1910–1923
Preceded by John Lloyd Gibbons
Succeeded by T. E. Hickman
Personal details
Born (1858-09-19)19 September 1858
Leicester
Died (1939-06-04)June 4, 1939 (aged 80)
Nationality British
Political party Liberal Party
Spouse(s) Ménie Muriel Dowie, Florence Priscilla McLaren
Children Nigel Norman
Henry Norman

Sir Henry Norman, 1st Baronet, PC (19 September 1858 – 4 June 1939) was an English journalist and Liberal politician. Norman was educated privately in France and at Harvard University, where he obtained his B.A. For several years he worked on the editorial staff of the Pall Mall Gazette and later joined the editorial staff of the News Chronicle, being appointed Assistant Editor of the latter in 1895. He retired from journalism in 1899. During this time he travelled widely in Canada and the United States and in Russia, Japan, China, Siam, Malaya and Central Asia. Much of the material included in the two volumes mentioned in the description was amassed during these tours. He was knighted in 1906 and made a baronet in 1915.[1]

Family and education

Norman was born in Leicester, the son of Henry Norman, a merchant and local radical politician. Norman was educated at Leicester Collegiate School and Grove House School and later studied theology and philosophy at Leipzig and Harvard University. His family were Unitarians in religion and Norman first embarked in a career as a preacher but he gave up this calling and his religion on his return to England.

In 1891 he married author Ménie Muriel Dowie (1867–1945) but they divorced in 1903 on the grounds of her adultery with a family friend, Edward Arthur Fitzgerald.[2] Norman was awarded custody of their son Henry Nigel St Valery Norman who was born in 1897. In 1907 he married Florence Priscilla (‘Fay’) McLaren (1884–1964), the daughter of the wealthy industrialist and Liberal MP, Sir Charles Benjamin Bright McLaren, later Lord Aberconway. They had three children. In 1922 he purchased Ramster Hall, Chiddingfold, Guildford, Surrey with Lady Norman.[3]

Journalism

Norman became a journalist working for the Pall Mall Gazette and the New York Times. As a journalist he was famous for uncovering the truth behind the Dreyfuss Affair. He was on the staff of the Daily Chronicle from 1892, becoming assistant editor. Norman travelled extensively in the East, where he took a number of photographs that are held at Cambridge University.[4] Later he founded and edited the magazine The World's Work (vols 1-42 1902-1923).

Business

He was appointed Assistant Postmaster-General in 1910 and his interest in international communications led to a number of appointments related to wireless and telegraphy, among them Chairman of the War Office Committee on Wireless Telegraphy 1912, and Chairman of the Imperial Wireless Telegraphy Committee of 1920, the latter convened to draw up a complete wireless scheme for the Empire.[5] He was an early advocate of wireless broadcasting, opening the All British Wireless Exhibition at the Royal Horticultural Hall, Westminster in 1922 at which he predicted the ubiquitous uptake, to a very sceptical press, of the technology into all homes.[6]

In other business, Norman was a director of a number of companies connected to the coal mining and iron trades industries.

Politics

Sir Henry Norman

Norman was a Liberal Member of Parliament for Wolverhampton South from 1900 to 1910, and for Blackburn from 1910 to 1923.[7] He was an advocate for a number of causes, notably women's suffrage.[8] He was created Baronet of Honeyhanger in the Parish of Shottermill in the County of Surrey, in 1915. In 1918, he was admitted to the Privy Council. In January 1910, he was appointed Assistant Postmaster General, a position which fitted well with his interests in wireless communications. He sat on the War Office Committee on Wireless Telegraphy in 1912. In 1914, he became the first President of the Derby Wireless Club, founded in 1911. He was Chairman of the Imperial Wireless Telegraphy Committee from 1919, (The Norman Committee), which recommended wireless communications covering a range of 2,000 miles.[9] He contributed to government committees including chairing a Select Committee on Patent Medicines (specifically advertisements for them and fraudulent claims), on rent restrictions, on betting duty and on industrial paints. He championed the rights and regulation of motorists in the House of Commons even though he had himself been fined for speeding (30 mph) under a scheme he himself had advocated to the Royal Commission.[10] Norman was appointed a Justice of the Peace for Surrey.

Selected writings

  • An Account of the Harvard Greek Play (1881)
  • The Preservation of Niagara Falls (1882)
  • The Real Japan (1892)
  • The Peoples and Politics of the Far East (1895)[11]
  • The Treatment and Training of Disabled and Discharged Soldiers in France (1917)
  • All the Russias (1902)
  • Will No Man Understand? a play, (1934)
  • Bodyke : A Chapter In The History of Irish Landlordism (1887)

Notes

  1. ↑ Henry Norman. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/61020.
  2. ↑ French, Patrick. "Norman, Sir Henry, first baronet (1858–1939), journalist and politician". ONDB. Retrieved 3 July 2015.
  3. ↑ "History of Ramster Hall in Surrey - Weddings".
  4. ↑ "Sir Henry Norman Far East collection, circa 1890 (Y302E)". Cambridge Digital Library. Retrieved 3 July 2015.
  5. ↑ "BRITAIN TO LINK UP EMPIRE BY WIRELESS; Imperial Committee Recommends System of Generating Energy by Thermionic Valves" (PDF).
  6. ↑ "Wireless in Every Home". The Observer. 1 Oct 1922.
  7. ↑ "Sir Henry Norman". Hansard. Retrieved 3 July 2015.
  8. ↑ "Sir Henry Norman and Women's Suffrage". The Manchester Guardian. 4 Mar 1912.
  9. ↑ "Norman Committee's Scheme". The Manchester Guardian. 29 Jun 1920.
  10. ↑ "Sir Henry Norman Fined: penalty for exceeding the speed limit". The Observer. 14 Jul 1907.
  11. ↑ Henry Norman (1 January 1895). "The Peoples and Politics of the Far East: Travels and Studies in the British ..." Scribner – via Internet Archive.

References

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
John Lloyd Gibbons		 Member of Parliament for Wolverhampton South
1900–January 1910		 Succeeded by
T. E. Hickman
Preceded by
Phillip Snowden and
Thomas Barclay		 Member of Parliament for Blackburn
December 1910–1923
With: Phillip Snowden 1910–1918
Percy Dean 1918–1922
Sydney Henn 1922–1923		 Succeeded by
Sydney Henn and
John Duckworth
Baronetage of the United Kingdom
New creation Baronet
(of Honeyhanger)
1915–1939		 Succeeded by
Nigel Norman

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