George Parsons Norman Biography

George Parson[s] Norman (1840-1914) was born in Newington, Surrey, England, eldest child of George Parson Norman, a conveyancer clerk, and his wife Emily née Clarke, who married at Newington, London in 1839.

In 1851, 10-year-old George Parson was living at 12 East Harding Street, St Bride's, London with his parents, 36-year-old George Parson Norman and 34-year-old Emily, with two siblings. Young George married Eleanor Clark in Hackney in 1865, when he seems to have gradually hyphenated his name to Parsons-Norman. 

Around 1878 they moved to Lowestoft, Suffolk and in 1881, George was a 39-year-old artist at 2 Burton Street, Lowestoft, with his 34-year-old wife Eleanor and two children, both born in London. A landscape and coastal painter, and a member of the Ipswich Fine Art Club 1874-1914, he exhibited three paintings from his studio at Old Bank House, London Road, Lowestoft in 1881,  ‘Soham Fen, Cambridgeshire’, 'Fritton Decoy' and 'By the Fen City'.

In 1882 he showed his Royal Academy exhibit 'On the Waveney, by Beccles' and in 1883 had four pictures on show 'A Quiet Corner on Fritton Water, Suffolk', 'A Peep at Fritton from the Hill', 'A Troop on a Suffolk Broad' and 'The Samuel Plimsoll Lifeboat' and continued to exhibit regularly.

By 1888 he had moved his studio to Dagmar House, London Road and by 1892 had his home at 1 St Margaret’s Terrace, Church Road with his studio at 9 Commercial Road, Lowestoft. By 1897 he had moved to 46 Unthank Road, Norwich and then to Gorleston, Great Yarmouth. Many of his pictures featured on local holiday postcards and were used for many years, and he published three books, 'Poppyland' and 'Broadland' No. 1 and No. 2. 

George Parsons Norman was of 81 City Road, Norwich when he died at 88 Garden Terrace, Springfield Road, Gorleston, Norfolk on 27 September 1914, aged 74, and his wife died the following year, aged 69.