Faced with rising maintenance costs and a rapid expansion of the property portfolio, he guarded short-term solvency while keeping a clear eye on long-term liabilities.
In 1939 Norman enlisted in the Hertfordshire Yeomanry, before transferring to the Special Operations Executive, joining a six-man team led by the journalist and explorer Peter Fleming.
Their task formulated by Churchill, was to recruit Italian POWs in Egypt to the Allied cause, and then to hold back the German advance in Greece.
Norman was badly wounded escaping from Greece, and on his return to England became an assistant military secretary in the War Cabinet offices; he later attended the Potsdam Conference, and was promoted to lieutenant-colonel.
Contrary to the recommendations of the 1968 Benson Committee, he argued successfully for the devolution of power to the Trust's regional chairmen — "a splendid lot", he called them, though some were reputedly "embryo brigands".