William Crawley has provided this obituary on his friend and colleague, Jim Norris:

James Alfred Norris  MA PhD (Cantab), Barrister of the Middle Temple
1929-2014

Jim Norris  former Head of the Arabic and  Eastern Services in Bush House and previously a leading figure in the BBC Secretariat, died at his home in Norfolk on 6th January 2014. He was 84.

Jim’s career spanned journalism, administration, management, the army,  the law and the writing of history, in a way that testifies to an enormous intellectual and physical energy and dedication.

He was educated in grammar schools in Cornwall and North London, and won an open Exhibition to Cambridge to read English.  
As a commissioned officer he spent part of his National Service in Egypt and Libya before taking up his place at St Catherine’s College in 1949, he won the prestigious Charles Oldham Shakespeare scholarship in 1951 and a First Class in Part 1 of the English Tripos, and was active both in sport and student affairs as President of the college student society and a keen rower and coach.

After graduation he joined Reuters and held posts as correspondent in Rome, Brussels, Paris, and Teheran, and as Middle East correspondent in Beirut.

He joined the BBC Arabic Service in 1959 and in seven years as a Talks writer he also served as an officer in the Territorial Army and worked in the archives in London on a book on The First Afghan War 1838-42, which was published in 1967 and subsequently in 1985 accepted as a thesis for a doctorate in the Cambridge History faculty.

His 14 years in the BBC Secretariat, culminating in five years as Deputy Secretary, gave him a close understanding and practical experience of BBC governance and constitutional procedures. For some years his lucid articles about then current issues in the BBC’s bureaucratic heart were circulated widely to staff through the Corporation. In the midst of it all he found time to qualify as a Barrister and though he never practised he was for several years a member of the Bar Association for Commerce Finance and Industry.

He came back to Bush House as Head of the Eastern Service in 1981. He used to say he had been too long away and felt he was coming back to his true BBC home, the more so when he became Head of the Arabic Service in 1986.

He was a man who got things done, quick, methodical and decisive. Though deeply committed to traditional BBC values he was also a moderniser; – for example while some of us were sceptical he enthusiastically embraced and was quick to master the new computer technology as it was being introduced into Bush House.

He and Jo moved to Norfolk several years before his retirement from the BBC and embarked on a new and busy voluntary career in NHS administration local politics and church and community affairs, as well as writing and lecturing. In 55 years of marriage he and Jo suffered the great personal tragedy of the loss of both of their sons. Our sympathies go to her and their granddaughter.

Mark Dodd, whom he succeeded as Head of the Eastern Service, writes; ‘When Jim joined us in Bush House I found him to be an excellent colleague ready to share his knowledge and experience of the workings of the Corporation and give us the benefit of his mature judgement and wisdom.I think he enjoyed working in a new field and was happy to put his long-standing interest in Afghanistan to good use. I believe the award of a doctorate to cap years of academic research in that field gave him a great deal of pleasure. He was, after all, a man who valued scholarship highly. . He obviously found the opportunities for travel in the Overseas Service very welcome and made the best of those opportunities underlining his commitment first to the Eastern Service and then the Arabic Service. I personally found in Jim a wise and loyal colleague and, also, a friend."

William Crawley