Norris, David Thomas, Admiral, 1875-1937.

The papers contain official letters and memoranda from 1915, papers relating to Norris's commands in the Caspian Sea and in Persia, 1916-1921, as well as photograph albums, 1892 to 1927.

Administrative / biographical background
Norris entered the Navy in 1889. In 1893 as a midshipman in HMS NILE in the Mediterranean, he was an eye-witness of the collision between HMS VICTORIA and HMS CAMPERDOWN. He was promoted to lieutenant in 1896, commander in 1907 and captain in 1914. During the First World War he commanded the armed merchant cruiser HMS ARLANZA in the 10th Cruiser Squadron, until she had to returned to Belfast for repairs following a mine explosion in the White Sea. Norris then served in the Air Department at the Admiralty. In 1918 he was appointed Commodore Persian Gulf and Mesopotamia, a division of the East Indies station, which involved his command of British naval forces in the Caspian Sea. In May 1919, with six armed merchant vessels, some coastal motor boats and an air unit, attacked thirty Bolshevik ships, fourteen of which were destroyed. Between 1920 and 1921 Norris headed a naval mission to Persia. During the next eight years he held several appointments afloat and ashore, including a brief period in command of the battleship HMS VALIANT. He was promoted to rear-admiral in 1924 and retired on his promotion to vice-admiral in 1929. He was promoted to admiral on the retired list in 1933 and died at Sherborne in Dorset in 1937.