Norwood Francis Allman

Norwood Francis Allman (阿乐满, Ālèmǎn; the gazetteer prints his first name as “Nonwood”) was one of the American lawyers who built a practice around the International Settlement’s courts and Council. He arrived in 1916 as a student interpreter at the American legation, then served from 1921 to 1923 as assessor in the settlement’s Mixed Court.

In 1922 he went into private practice, forming a firm with Fleming and with Cornell Franklin (樊克令). A second firm followed in 1936. Alongside law he held business directorships, rode with the Shanghai Volunteer Corps’ American cavalry troop for seven years, and in 1926 presided over the Shanghai Rotary Club.

The gazetteer records his service on the Municipal Council from 1940 to 1942, in the last years of the International Settlement. The Pacific War found him in Hong Kong, where he was interned; after repatriation in 1942 he worked for the OSS, and after the war he practised law in Shanghai again until 1949. His death year is not given.