Sir Henry Norman, 1st Baronet

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Florence Priscilla McLaren
ChildrenNigel Norman
Henry Norman

Sir Henry Norman, 1st Baronet

Pall Mall Gazette and later joined the editorial staff of the Daily 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,[1] and made a baronet in 1915.[2]

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 on 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.[3] Norman was awarded custody of their son Henry Nigel St Valery Norman, who was born in 1897 and succeeded him in the baronetcy.

In 1907 he married

Florence Priscilla McLaren (1884–1964), the daughter of the wealthy industrialist and Liberal MP, Sir Charles McLaren
. They had three children.

In 1922 he purchased Ramster Hall, Chiddingfold, Guildford, Surrey with Lady Norman.[4]

Journalism

Norman became a journalist working for 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.[5]
Later he founded and edited the magazine The World's Work (vols 1–42, 1902–1923).

Government and other appointments

He was appointed Assistant Postmaster-General in January 1910. 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)
  • Chairman of the Imperial Wireless Telegraphy Committee of 1920 (the Norman Committee), which was convened to draw up a complete wireless scheme for the Empire,[6] and recommended[clarification needed] wireless communications covering a range of 2,000 miles.[7]

In 1918 he was admitted to the

Justice of the Peace for Surrey
.

Outside government

In 1914, he became the first President of the Derby Wireless Club, founded in 1911.

Norman was also a director of a number of companies connected to coal mining and iron trades.

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, to a very sceptical press, the ubiquitous uptake of the technology into all homes.[9]

World War I

Sir Henry was the Munitions Inventions Department's permanent attaché to the French Ministry of Inventions.[10] At the end of the war Sir Henry was involved in the detailed planning for a proposed transatlantic flight using a F.B.27. Vickers Vimy. This planning included the route to be flown, the hangar facilities and the provision of fuel for the aircraft in Newfoundland.[11]

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.[12] He was an advocate for a number of causes, notably women's suffrage.[13] Norman was a supporter of

Coupon Election" of 1918.[2]
In 1915 he was created a baronet, and took the designation "of Honeyhanger in the Parish of Shottermill in the County of 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)[14]
  • 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. ^ The London Gazette, 28 December 1906 (issue 27980), pp. 9142–9145.
  2. ^ required.)
  3. ^ French, Patrick. "Norman, Sir Henry, first baronet (1858–1939), journalist and politician". ONDB. Retrieved 3 July 2015.
  4. ^ "History of Ramster Hall in Surrey - Weddings".
  5. ^ "Sir Henry Norman Far East collection, circa 1890 (Y302E)". Cambridge Digital Library. Retrieved 3 July 2015.
  6. ^ "BRITAIN TO LINK UP EMPIRE BY WIRELESS; Imperial Committee Recommends System of Generating Energy by Thermionic Valves" (PDF).
  7. ^ "Norman Committee's Scheme". The Manchester Guardian. 29 June 1920.
  8. ^ "Sir Henry Norman Fined: penalty for exceeding the speed limit". The Observer. 14 July 1907.
  9. ^ "Wireless in Every Home". The Observer. 1 October 1922.
  10. .
  11. .
  12. ^ "Sir Henry Norman". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). Retrieved 3 July 2015.
  13. ^ "Sir Henry Norman and Women's Suffrage". The Manchester Guardian. 4 March 1912.
  14. ^ Henry Norman (1 January 1895). "The Peoples and Politics of the Far East: Travels and Studies in the British ..." Scribner – via Internet Archive.

References

External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Wolverhampton South
1900January 1910
Succeeded by
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Blackburn
December 19101923
With: Phillip Snowden 1910–1918
Percy Dean 1918–1922
Sydney Henn 1922–1923
Succeeded by
Baronetage of the United Kingdom
New creation
Baronet

(of Honeyhanger)
1915–1939
Succeeded by