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Canadian ambassador jumps to his death in Egypt

Broadcast Date: April 4, 1957

On the morning of April 4, 1957, E. Herbert Norman took an elevator to the top of a downtown Cairo building, climbed to the roof and jumped eight storeys to his death. A respected civil servant, scholar and close friend of Lester B. Pearson, Norman had recently earned acclaim for his role in the peaceful resolution to the Suez Crisis. Despite this, the 47-year-old remained dogged by accusations from American investigators. They claimed Norman was a communist sympathizer and a risk to North American security. This CBC Radio clip looks at the Cold War controversy, which one Canadian politician described as "murder by slander."

During his two decades with External Affairs, Herbert Norman gained a reputation as a devoted and gifted civil servant. An internationally recognized expert on Japanese culture, he made his mark internationally in 1945 when he worked closely with General Douglas McArthur during the U.S.-led occupation of post-war Japan. But even his close association with the U.S. general wasn't enough to protect him once his name began popping up on lists alongside known communist operatives. Haunted by what he saw as a youthful flirtation with communism ideology, Norman eventually decided there was only one way to escape the persistent allegations.

Canadian ambassador jumps to his death in Egypt

• The son of Canadian Methodist missionaries, Egerton Herbert Norman was born in Karuizawa, Japan on Sept. 1, 1909.
• In 1933, he enrolled in Cambridge University and joined a communist discussion group. He began socializing with other like-minded students, including Britons Guy Burgess, Anthony Blunt, Kim Philby and Donald Maclean.
• The four would become infamous as the Cambridge spy ring, a circle of British spies who were exposed as KGB agents in the 1950s.

• Norman entered Canada's Department of External Affairs in 1939. A year later he published Japan's Emergence as a Modern State, a book that is considered a seminal work in the field of Japanology.
• After the Japanese surrendered in 1945, Norman was seconded to the U.S. Intelligence Corps as an adviser to General McArthur, head of the occupation forces.

• Norman negotiated the release of political prisoners (including communists and union leaders) from Japan's prisons.
• In 1951, the U.S. Senate Internal Security Subcommittee was set up to investigate subversive activities that threatened America.
• In April 1951, committee counsel Robert Morris accused Norman of belonging to a communist cell in 1939. External Affairs expressed "regret and annoyance" that Norman's name was raised.

• Norman was recalled from Tokyo and interviewed by the RCMP. Cleared of any wrongdoing, he returned to his post.
• Less than a year later suspicions about Norman surfaced once more after Burgess and Maclean, Norman's old Cambridge colleagues, defected to the Soviet Union.
• Norman was subjected to another RCMP interrogation. He was again cleared, but reassigned as high commissioner to New Zealand.

• In 1956, Norman was appointed ambassador to Egypt where he found himself handling the Suez Crisis.
• During the historic conflict, he negotiated with the Egyptian president to allow peacekeeping forces into the country.
• On March 14, 1957, Norman's name was again raised by Robert Morris. Pearson filed a formal protest, which prompted the U.S. State Department to disavow the committee's accusations.

• Undeterred, Morris continued his allegations against Norman. On the morning of April 4, an emotionally fragile Norman jumped from the roof of a Cairo apartment building. One of his two suicide notes read in part: "The forces against me are too formidable ... even for an innocent man, and it is better to go now than to live indefinitely pelted with mud."
• The news was met with outrage across Canada. The April 5, 1957, edition of the Globe and Mail featured six stories about Norman's death and the headline "Wave of Anger Sweeps Ottawa over Norman's Suicide in Cairo."

• The Globe quoted External Affairs Minister Pearson, who praised Norman's 18 years in the civil service. "The combined effect of overwork, overstrain and the feeling of renewed persecution on a sensitive mind and a not very robust body produced a nervous collapse," he said.
• John Diefenbaker, the Progressive Conservative leader, mourned Norman as a "devoted public servant" whose "good name was filched from him by indiscriminately branding him as an enemy, trying him by suspicion and ... convicting him by innuendo."

• Alistair Stewart, CCF MP for Winnipeg North, was more direct. "I believe that Mr. Norman was murdered by slander … I believe he died as surely as if someone had put a knife into his back."
• Robert Morris defended his actions in a statement that made no mention of Norman's death. According to the Globe and Mail, earlier in the day Morris had posed for photographers holding a newspaper bearing the headline "Envoy Accused as Red Kills Self."
• In 1990, political scientist Peyton Lyon was commissioned by the federal government to investigate Norman's case.

• Lyon found no evidence of communist activities, and speculated that the CIA had conspired to tarnish Norman's reputation.
• In 1993, Canadian writer Timothy Findley used Norman's story as inspiration for his play The Stillborn Lover.

Canadian ambassador jumps to his death in Egypt

Medium: Radio

Program: CBC News Roundup

Broadcast Date: April 4, 1957

Guest(s): John Diefenbaker, Robert Morris, Lester B. Pearson, Alistair Stewart

Host: Ken Haslam
Reporter: Knowlton Nash

Duration: 4:35

Photo: Library and Archives Canada (PA#134317)

Last updated:
April 18, 2008