John Paxton Norman

Sir John Paxton Norman (21 October 1819 – 21 September 1871) was an English jurist who the acting chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court. He was assassinated in 1871.

Paxton Norman was born in 1819; his father John Norman was a banker of Somerset. He was educated at Exeter Grammar School and Exeter College, Oxford, and then practiced as a special pleader. In 1862 he was called to the bar at the Inner Temple. In British India he worked as a Puisne Judge of The Supreme Court of Judicature at Fort William till 1871. Sir Paxton Norman was appointed as acting Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court in 1870.^[1]

Paxton Norman was unpopular among Wahabis for imposing heavy sentences.^[2] He was the author of many legal treatises and papers, and also took active part in Calcutta University as the president of the Law faculty.^[3]

In 1871, while Norman was coming down the steps of the Kolkata Town Hall, an Indian Wahabi, Abdullah, attacked him and stabbed him to death. He died on 21 September 1871.^[4][5][6] Sir Paxton Norman was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral, Kolkata.^[3][7]