professional photographer and dentist, practised as a dentist in England for eighteen years (mainly in London) after serving his apprenticeship with a Mr Helsby of Manchester. Norman came to South Australia in the Taglion in 1844 and opened a surgery in Wright Street, Adelaide on 5 October, announcing the colony’s first dental practice in the South Australian Register that day. By December 1845 he had also opened a daguerreotype studio in King William Street, Adelaide with C.A.F. Heseltine . Considered to be South Australia’s first photographic business, it lasted only a few months. Heseltine joined Schohl in 1846 and Norman reverted to dentistry, moving his surgery into Belle Vue House on North Terrace in July 1847 and remaining in practice there for almost thirty-seven years (assisted by his son Roger , who succeeded him as name partner in 1878). Robert Norman died on 31 October 1883 and was buried at Normanville.
Norman and his wife Sarah, née Hayes, daughter of a London dentist, had six sons and two daughters. Three of the sons – Roger, Leslie and Herbert Hayes Norman – also became dentists. As well as photography, in which he apparently retained an amateur interest and taught at least his son Herbert to take daguerreotypes, Norman had a wide range of talents and cultural interests. Chapman states that he spoke Gaelic, French and Italian, possessed a fine tenor voice and was highly musical, was fond of literature and a 'scholar’ of Shakespeare, played an excellent game of billiards and was considered an accomplished swordsman.
- Writers:
- Staff Writer
- Date written:
- 1992
- Last updated:
- 2011
