Commander William Henry Norman

William Henry Norman was born in Uphoe, Kent, England in March 1812. He became a master mariner in the mercantile marine and in 1851 he captained the Lady Jocelyn to Australia. His next trip to Australia was as captain of the Queen of the South which had Sir Charles Hotham aboard. Hotham was en route to Victoria to replace La Trobe as Governor.

Upon arrival, Hotham decided Victoria to an armed steam sloop for the colony's defence. He gave the commission to Norman, who returned to England on the Queen of the South, resigned from The General Screw Steam Shipping Company and supervised the building of the HMCS Victoria. The Victoria was designed by the British naval architect Oliver Lang, built at Limehouse, London and launched by Lady Constance Talbot on 30 June 1855.

Norman sailed the Victoria from Plymouth to Hobsons Bay and in 1860 he was sent to New Zealand to assist in the war at Taranaki. Upon his return, Norman was sent to the Gulf to assist the exploration party under Frederick Walker in his search for Burke. The Victoria was accompanied by the SS Firefly. The Queensland government funded their own expedition under Landsbourough and they sailed to the Gulf in the Victoria.

Walker named the Norman River after him, although initially Walker believed he was on the Flinders not the Norman as Stokes had not charted the Norman during his 1846 maritime survey of the coast.

Norman was sent to England in 1869 to take command of the HMS Cerebus but became ill and died in Ramsgate on 12 December 1869.

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