Norwood Francis ALLMAN [1893-1987]
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Submitted by Admin on Mon, 2013-12-09 12:26
Sex:
Male
Status:
Deceased
Brian Edgar writes:
Allman was an American lawyer from Shanghai stuck in HK during the attack. After the repatriation he became head if the Far Eastern Bureau of the OSS (Don's dad's boss?) and later worked for the CIA.
His memoir Shanghai Lawyer is now available free online. Chapter 1 is about his work as legal adviser to the Camp Council and Chapter 18 is the best account I know of the work of the American volunteer drivers during the fighting (and of the controversial Bill Hunt, who was to become the leader of the Americans in Stanley).
http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015009154116;view=1up;seq=9
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Norwood Allman
Norwood Francis Allman was born on 24 July 1893, in Union Hall, Virginia. Allman attended the University of Virginia for one year before sitting the consular exam. He was appointed student interpreter in the American legation in Peking in 1915, and served as a consular officer in various locations finally serving as consul in Shanghai from 1921 to 1924. During that time, he also sat as an assessor on the International Mixed Court. In 1924, he retired from consular service and practised law in Shanghai. He also served as honorary Mexican consul in Shanghai and from 1937 as the editor of the Chinese language Shun Pao newspaper. He was placed on a Japanese black list because of the paper's editorial policies. In 1940 he was elected a member Shanghai Municipal Council. He was in Hong Kong on business when WWII started. After being repatriated, he served in the OSS during the war and continued to work for the CIA after the war. He returned to Shanghai in 1946 to restart his legal practice and also owned and edited the English language China Press. He left China in 1950 and returned to America. He was a broadcaster in America for a number of years. He died in Carlisle Pennsyvania on 28 February 1987.
Fun, easy read. Especially
Fun, easy read. Especially liked the description of the Polo Ponies in Shanghai.
Norwood Francis Alllman
Father of my uncle, William Hamilton Allman (1921-2011), HK resident through the 1960s. He was an AIU executive; he and his wife, Jo, lived at No. 9 Headland Road.