Norman Alexander

Sir Norman Stanley Alexander CBE (7 October 1907 – 26 March 1997) was a New Zealand physicist instrumental in the establishment of many Commonwealth universities, including Ahmadu Bello University in Nigeria, and the Universities of the West Indies, the South Pacific and Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland.

Alexander was born in Mangapiko, Te Awamutu, New Zealand. He married to a fellow PhD student and noted meteorologist Elizabeth Caldwell. He was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1959 Birthday Honours, and was knighted in March 1966.

He was imprisoned in Changi Prison in 1942, and word had made its way to New Zealand that he had died, only later to be told that he was actually still alive. Using his academic knowledge, Alexander helped to build a salt evaporation plant at Changi and a small industrial plant that fermented surgical spirit and other products for prison hospital. Upon release, he eventually headed a New Zealand commission of investigation into abuses at Sime Road Internment Camp.

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