Mark Norman

Mark Richard Norman CBE (3 April 19106 December 1994) was an English banker from the Norman family. He was a managing director of Lazard Brothers, the merchant bankers from 1960 to 1975 and chairman of Gallaher, the cigarette manufacturers. Norman combined his respective careers in the City and industry with a prominent role in the affairs of the National Trust — an interest he inherited from his father, Ronald Collet Norman. Norman took over as deputy chairman of the Trust in 1977. Faced with rising maintenance costs and a rapid expansion of the property portfolio, he guarded short-term solvency while keeping a clear eye on long-term liabilities. Early life and education Mark Richard Norman was born in London on 5 April 1910, into a City family connected with the banking house of Brown, Shipley & Co. His uncle Montagu Norman, was a long-serving governor of the Bank of England, and both his paternal great-grandfathers were directors. His mother Lady Florence Bridgeman, was a daughter of the 4th Earl of Bradford. His father was chairman of the Board of Governors of the BBC (1935-1940) and of the London County Council (1915-1917). He also served as vice-chairman of the National Trust during the 1930s, but declined the chairmanship, because he was not himself a great landowner. Ronald Collet Norman also placed the Trust's finance committee on a more professional footing; it subsequently fell to his son to chair that committee through the difficult economic circumstances of the 1970s. Mark Norman was educated at Eton and Magdalen College, Oxford, where he read history. In 1930 he joined Gallahers, but he later moved to the City in 1932 to join Lazard Brothers, taking posts in London, Paris and Berlin.