Ezra Norton (1897–1967) by Valerie Lawson
This article was published:
in the Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 15, 2000
online in 2006
Ezra Norton (1897-1967), newspaper proprietor, was born on 8 April 1897 at Watsons Bay, Sydney, elder child of John Norton, the English-born proprietor of Truth, and Ada McGrath who was native-born. John married Ada a few weeks later and may have chosen the infant’s name in honour of the scribe in the Old Testament book of Nehemiah. Ezra never recovered from his parents' tempestuous relationship. His birth was legitimized in 1907. By the time he was 15, he had learned how to defend his mother from his father’s assaults and to stand up for his own rights in the face of continuing mental and physical abuse. He was educated at Scots College, Bellevue Hill. There he was ridiculed by a teacher
