Montagu Collet Norman, 1st Baron Norman
DSO PC (6 September 1871 – 4 February 1950) was an English
banker
A bank is a financial institution that accepts Deposit account, deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital m ...
, best known for his role as the
Governor of the Bank of England
The governor of the Bank of England is the most senior position in the Bank of England. It is nominally a civil service post, but the appointment tends to be from within the bank, with the incumbent grooming their successor. The governor of the Ba ...
from 1920 to 1944.
Norman led the bank during the toughest period in modern British economic history and was noted for his somewhat raffish character and arty appearance. A very influential figure, Norman, according to ''
The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'', was referred to as "the currency dictator of Europe", a fact which he himself admitted to, before the Court of the Bank on 21 March 1930. The economist and Court member,
John Maynard Keynes
John Maynard Keynes, 1st Baron Keynes, ( ; 5 June 1883 – 21 April 1946), was an English economist whose ideas fundamentally changed the theory and practice of macroeconomics and the economic policies of governments. Originally trained in ...
, said of him: "Montagu Norman, always absolutely charming, always absolutely wrong".
Early life and military service
Norman was the elder son of
Frederick Norman
Frederick Henry Norman (23 January 1839 – 6 October 1916) was an English merchant banker and a director of the merchant bank Brown, Shipley & Co. He was also a first-class cricketer, appearing for Kent, Cambridge University, Cambridge Tow ...
and Lina Susan Penelope Collet, a daughter of
Sir Mark Wilks Collet, 1st Baronet, himself a
Bank of England
The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694 to act as the English Government's banker, and still one of the bankers for the Government of ...
Governor. The
Norman family was well known in banking. Montagu's brother
Ronald Collet Norman
Ronald Collet Norman JP (15 November 1873 – 5 December 1963) was a banker, administrator and politician.
He was chairman of the Board of Governors of the BBC from 1935 to 1939 and of the London County Council from 1918 to 1919.
Biography
...
and his nephew
Mark Norman became leading bankers. Montagu's great-nephew David Norman has also led a successful
City
A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...
career and is a noted benefactor of the arts. Montagu Norman was educated at
Eton Eton most commonly refers to Eton College, a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England.
Eton may also refer to:
Places
*Eton, Berkshire, a town in Berkshire, England
* Eton, Georgia, a town in the United States
* Éton, a commune in the Meuse dep ...
and spent one year at
King's College, Cambridge
King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, the college lies beside the River Cam and faces out onto King's Parade in the centre of the city ...
. He also joined the 4th Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire militia in 1894 and served in the
Second Boer War
The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the Sout ...
. He was awarded the
Distinguished Service Order
The Distinguished Service Order (DSO) is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, as well as formerly of other parts of the Commonwealth, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typ ...
in 1901.
Merchant banking
After spending time in Europe, he joined
Martins Bank
Martins Bank was a London private bank, trading for much of its time under the symbol of “The Grasshopper”, that could trace its origins back to the London goldsmiths. Martins agreed to its acquisition by the Bank of Liverpool in 1918. The Ba ...
, where his father was a partner, in 1892,
Brown, Shipley & Co., where his maternal grandfather was a partner, in 1894, and
Brown Bros. & Co. of New York, in 1895. He became a partner in Brown Shipley in 1900 before leaving for
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
, and retired from them in 1915.
Bank of England
He became a director of the
Bank of England
The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694 to act as the English Government's banker, and still one of the bankers for the Government of ...
in 1907 and during
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
he was a financial advisor to government departments. He was appointed
Deputy Governor in 1917 and he became
Governor
A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...
in 1920. He engineered the bank's takeover of the
Anglo-Austrian Bank
The Anglo-Österreichische Bank (), in shorthand Anglobank, was a bank founded in Vienna in 1863 with an extensive branch network in the Habsburg Monarchy and later in its successor states, primarily Austria and Czechoslovakia.
Following the c ...
in
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
and the creation of the
Anglo-Czechoslovak Bank in
Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...
. Under Norman, the bank underwent significant change. He was a supporter of the return to the
gold standard
A gold standard is a monetary system in which the standard economic unit of account is based on a fixed quantity of gold. The gold standard was the basis for the international monetary system from the 1870s to the early 1920s, and from the la ...
, which he called "knaveproof", in 1925, despite the opposition of economist
John Maynard Keynes
John Maynard Keynes, 1st Baron Keynes, ( ; 5 June 1883 – 21 April 1946), was an English economist whose ideas fundamentally changed the theory and practice of macroeconomics and the economic policies of governments. Originally trained in ...
. In 1931, at the height of the Great Depression, Norman commented, "Unless dramatic measures are taken to save it, the capitalist system throughout the civilized world will be wrecked within a year"; he borrowed $250 million in an attempt to stave off speculative attacks upon the pound. Later that year, however, the United Kingdom was forced to permanently abandon the gold standard after the publication of the May Report on the UK's budget deficit provoked a further financial crisis. Norman was returning from a cruise to Canada at the time, and did not learn the news until he docked in the UK.
Norman was a close friend of the German Central Bank President
Hjalmar Schacht
Hjalmar Schacht (born Horace Greeley Hjalmar Schacht; 22 January 1877 – 3 June 1970, ) was a German economist, banker, centre-right politician, and co-founder in 1918 of the German Democratic Party. He served as the Currency Commissioner a ...
, who served in Hitler's government as President of the Reichsbank and Minister of Economics between 1934 and 1937. Norman was also so close to the Schacht family that he was godfather to one of Schacht's grandchildren. Both were members of the
Anglo-German Fellowship
The Anglo-German Fellowship was a membership organisation that existed from 1935 to 1939, and aimed to build up friendship between the United Kingdom and Germany. It was widely perceived as being allied to Nazism. Previous groups in Britain wit ...
and the
Bank for International Settlements
The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) is an international financial institution owned by central banks that "fosters international monetary and financial cooperation and serves as a bank for central banks".
The BIS carries out its work thr ...
.
While in the past Norman's role in the transferring of Czech gold to the Nazi regime in March 1939 was uncertain, careful investigation by historian David Blaazer into the Bank of England's internal memos has established that Norman knowingly authorized the transfer of Czech gold from
Czechoslovakia
, rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי,
, common_name = Czechoslovakia
, life_span = 1918–19391945–1992
, p1 = Austria-Hungary
, image_p1 ...
's No. 2 account with the
Bank for International Settlements
The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) is an international financial institution owned by central banks that "fosters international monetary and financial cooperation and serves as a bank for central banks".
The BIS carries out its work thr ...
to the No. 17 account, which Norman was aware was managed by the German
Reichsbank
The ''Reichsbank'' (; 'Bank of the Reich, Bank of the Realm') was the central bank of the German Reich from 1876 until 1945.
History until 1933
The Reichsbank was founded on 1 January 1876, shortly after the establishment of the German Empi ...
. Within ten days the money had been transferred to other accounts. In the fall of 1939, two months after the outbreak of World War II, Norman again supported transfers of Czech gold to Hitler's Germany. On this occasion His Majesty's Government intervened to block Norman's initiative. He retired from the bank in 1944.
Honours
Following his retirement, he was raised to the peerage as Baron Norman, of St Clere in the County of Kent, on 13 October 1944. In addition to receiving the Distinguished Service Order, Norman was sworn of the
Privy Council
A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mon ...
in 1923 and was created a Grand Officer of the
Order of the Crown.
Personal life
On 2 November 1933, Norman married
Priscilla Cecilia Maria Reyntiens, London councillor and granddaughter of
Montagu Bertie, 7th Earl of Abingdon
Montagu Arthur Bertie, 7th Earl of Abingdon (13 May 1836 – 10 March 1928) was an English peer.
Early life
Montagu Arthur Bertie was born on 13 May 1836 at Hanover Square, Mayfair. He was the eldest of nine children born to Montagu Bertie, 6 ...
. He gained two stepsons from this marriage;
Sir Simon Towneley and
Sir Peregrine Worsthorne. Lord Norman & Cecilia had no children and on his death he passed the bulk of his estate to his nephew, Brigadier Hugh Norman.
In 1944, while visiting his brother on his country estate in Hertfordshire, Norman went for a walk and tripped over, causing an injury from which he never recovered. There is an amusing anecdote contained in Bill Bryson's book, that he tripped over a cow, but it is unclear where this anecdote came from as it is not known within his family.
From 1904, Norman's London home was Thorpe Lodge, Airlie Gardens off
Campden Hill
Campden Hill is a hill in Kensington, West London, bounded by Holland Park Avenue on the north, Kensington High Street on the south, Kensington Palace Gardens on the east and Abbotsbury Road on the west. The name derives from the former ''Campde ...
in Kensington, which had been built c1816. Norman worked with
Walter Knight Shirley and
Ernest Gimson
Ernest William Gimson (; 21 December 1864 – 12 August 1919) was an English furniture designer and architect. Gimson was described by the art critic Nikolaus Pevsner as "the greatest of the English architect-designers". Today his reputatio ...
to modernise the house and redecorate it in the
Arts and Crafts
A handicraft, sometimes more precisely expressed as artisanal handicraft or handmade, is any of a wide variety of types of work where useful and decorative objects are made completely by one’s hand or by using only simple, non-automated re ...
style. Lord Norman died at Thorpe Lodge in 1950 following a
stroke
A stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. Both cause parts of the brain to stop functionin ...
. The house later became part of
Holland Park School
Holland Park School is a coeducational secondary school and sixth form in Holland Park, London, England. In 2013, it has attained academy status. Opened in 1958, the school became the flagship for comprehensive education, and at one time had ove ...
.
During his married life, he lived at the Manor of
St Clere in
Kemsing
Kemsing is a village and civil parish in the Sevenoaks district of Kent, England. The parish lies on the scarp face of the North Downs, 20 miles south east of Central London, north east of Sevenoaks. Also in the parish are the hamlets of Hea ...
, Kent, which he acquired from his uncle in 1935.
Footnotes
References
*
Further reading
*
Ahamed, Liaquat, ''Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World,''
Penguin Books
Penguin Books is a British publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year.[Boyle, Andrew
Andrew Philip More Boyle (27 May 1919 – 22 April 1991) was a Scottish journalist and biographer. His biography of Brendan Bracken won the 1974 Whitbread Awards and his book ''The Climate of Treason'' exposed Anthony Blunt as the "Fourth Ma ...]
, ''Montagu Norman. A Biography'',
Cassell, 1967.
* Hargrave, John, ''Professor Skinner alias Montagu Norman'',
Wells Gardner, Darton & Co.,
ub. 1939
External links
Banking with Hitler*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Norman, Montagu Norman, 1st Baron
1871 births
1950 deaths
Alumni of King's College, Cambridge
Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment officers
British Army personnel of the Second Boer War
Companions of the Distinguished Service Order
Deputy Governors of the Bank of England
English bankers
Governors of the Bank of England
Grand Officers of the Order of the Crown (Belgium)
Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom
People educated at Eton College
People from Kemsing
Barons created by George VI
Military personnel from London