Windsor Castle. On 1 Oct. 1860 he was made assistant military secretary to the Duke of Cambridge, who always entertained a high regard for him. In the following year he was ordered back to India to take part in the great scheme of army reorganisation.
From this time his career, which promised so much success in the military service, was gradually diverted to civil administration. As first secretary to the government of India in the military department (12 Jan. 1862-31 May 1870), he had to endure the criticism and attacks of many vested interests affected by the financial stress and the reorganisation schemes of the period following the Mutiny. Stricken with fever, he was sent home in December 1865. Returning to India in 1867, he resumed his secretarial duties and became a major-general on 23 March 1869. From 1 June 1870 to 18 March 1877 he was member of the council of the governor-general of India, and took a prominent part in the discussion of Afghan affairs and the scientific frontier. He advocated on every occasion friendly relations with Russia, forbearance towards the Amir, and scrupulous avoidance of any advance beyond existing frontiers. He never forgot 'the dangers of our position in India,' and urged measures of economy and internal administration in order to keep our forces concentrated and our subjects contented. These views were not in harmony with Lord Lytton's forward policy, and he resigned his office in March 1877. He had been made K.C.B. on 24 May 1873, and was promoted lieutenant-general on 1 Oct. 1877. On 25 Feb. 1878 he was appointed member of the council of India, and when Lord Hartington [q. v. Suppl. II] became secretary of state for India on 28 April 1880 his strenuous opposition to the retention of Kandahar was rewarded with success. On 1 April 1882 he became general, and he was deputed to Egypt to settle various financial questions as to the liability of Indian and British revenues for the Indian contingent. On 30 Nov. 1883 he resigned his post at the India office to take up a colonial appointment as governor of Jamaica, where Lord Derby warned him that 'there will be a great deal to do' (Letter, 27 Sept. 1883).
Norman was received coldly on arrival. He bore unknown instructions on the constitutional crisis which had succeeded the resignation of the non-official members of the legislative council owing to the obligation imposed on the island for paying damages arising out of the seizure of the Florida. Queen Victoria's order in council of 19 May 1884 at least terminated uncertainty if it failed to satisfy hopes. But the introduction of the new representative scheme of legislation was so firmly and tactfully effected that 'the people were satisfied with even the little they had received' (speeches of the chairman of the standing committee for raising funds and others March 1886). For his services he received in May 1887 the G.C.M.G., and the military distinction of G.C.B. in the following month. In 1889 he disinterestedly accepted the governorship of Queensland in order to relieve the home government of a difficulty caused by their unpopular appointment of Sir Henry Blake. In Queensland quiet times succeeded to angry constitutional controversies. The colony was, however, soon involved in financial troubles, and Norman showed his public spirit in offering to share the reduction of salary to which the members of the legislative assembly had to submit. The responsible ministers freely sought his advice, and when he retired after the close of 1895 Mr. Chamberlain expressed his high appreciation of the governor's long and valuable services.
During Norman's term of office in Queensland Lord Kimberley, secretary of state for India, offered him, through Lord Ripon, secretary of state for the colonies, on 1 Sept. 1893, the post of governor-general of India on the resignation of that office by Lord Lansdowne. On 3 Sept. Norman accepted the office, but in the course of the next few days he found that the excitement and anxieties so upset him at the age of nearly sixty-seven years, that he could not expect to endure the strain of so arduous an office for five years. On 19 Sept. he withdrew his acceptance. After his return to England he was employed on various duties and commissions of a less onerous but important character. In December 1896 he was appointed president of a royal commission to inquire into the conditions of the sugar-growing colonies in West India. This involved a cruise round the islands and gratified his taste for the sea, cruising and voyaging having been Norman's chief recreation during his life. His views in favour of countervailing duties on bounty-fed sugar imported into the United Kingdom were not shared by his colleagues. In 1901 he was made governor of Chelsea Hospital, being raised to the rank of field-marshal on 26 June 1902. In the
