Alexander Vesey Bethune Norman

Alexander Vesey Bethune "Nick" Norman (10 February 1930 – 20 July 1998) was a British historian of arms and armour, museum curator and author. He served as assistant director of the Wallace Collection in London, was appointed Master of the Armouries at the Tower of London from 1977 to 1988, and co-founded the Church Monuments Society in 1978 with Claude Blair.

Early life and education Norman was born in Delhi, where his father, Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Maximilian Bethune Norman, was serving with the Gordon Highlanders. He moved to London, England, at 10 months, and then to his cousin's estate Kildrummy Castle, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, aged 6 years. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Scottish Horse on 11 July 1954. A change of direction took him to the University of London, where he completed a general degree as an external student in 1954.

Career

Wallace Collection Norman began volunteering at the Wallace Collection under Sir James Mann and was appointed assistant to the director in 1963.

Scottish United Services Museum Between 1957 and 1963 he was assistant curator of the Scottish United Services Museum (now part of National Museums Scotland) and honorary curator of Sir Walter Scott's arms at Abbotsford. In 1985, he began dispersing parts of the Tower collection to other institutions, including the English Civil War armoury at Littlecote House. During his first year as Master the armoury's flagship display catalogue The Medieval Soldier was written, later being described as "scholarly and sophisticated" in comparison to his prior work.

Church Monuments Society Interest in monumental effigies as evidence for dating armour led Norman and his friend, the Victoria and Albert Museum curator Claude Blair, to organise a symposium at the Tower of London in September 1978. A vote at the meeting founded the International Society for the Study of Church Monuments (renamed the Church Monuments Society the following year) with Norman as a founding committee member.

Later years and death Two years before his death he delivered the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland's Rhind Lectures, later printed as The Auld Stane Man, which set out a new framework for classifying Scotland's medieval military effigies. Norman continued to research and curate until his death in Edinburgh on 20 July 1998.

Selected works