José Norton de Matos

General José Norton de Matos
Prime Minister of Portugal
Interim
In office 7 October – 25 October 1917
President	Bernardino Machado
Preceded by	Afonso Costa
Succeeded by	Afonso Costa
Interim
In office 17 November – 8 December 1917
President	Bernardino Machado Sidónio Pais
Preceded by	Afonso Costa
Succeeded by	Sidónio Pais
Ambassador of Portugal to the United Kingdom
In office 1 July 1924 – 9 July 1926
President	Manuel Teixeira Gomes Bernardino Machado José Mendes Cabeçadas
Prime Minister	Álvaro de Castro Alfredo Rodrigues Gaspar José Domingues dos Santos Vitorino Guimarães António Maria da Silva Domingos Leite Pereira António Maria da Silva José Mendes Cabeçadas Manuel Gomes da Costa
Minister of Foreign Affairs	Domingos Leite Pereira Vitorino Henriques Godinho João de Barros Joaquim Pedro Martins Albano Portugal Durão (as interim) pt:António do Lago Cerqueira (as interim) Vasco Borges José Mendes Cabeçadas(as interim) Armando da Gama Ochoa Óscar Carmona
Preceded by	Augusto de Castro Corte-Real
Succeeded by	Tomás António Garcia Rosado
High Commissioner of the Republic in Angola
In office 1921–1923
President	António José de Almeida
Prime Minister	Bernardino Machado Tomé de Barros Queirós António Granjo Manuel Maria Coelho Carlos Maia Pinto Francisco Cunha Leal António Maria da Silva
Minister of the Colonies	António de Paiva Gomes Tomé de Barros Queirós (as interim) Celestino de Almeida Manuel Ferreira da Rocha Carlos Maia Pinto José Eduardo de Carvalho Crato(as interim) Manuel Maria Coelho (as interim) Carlos Maia Pinto Tomás Wylie Fernandes Francisco Rego Chaves Alfredo Rodrigues Gaspar
Preceded by	José de Abreu Barbosa Bacelar
Succeeded by	Miguel de Almeida Santos
Minister of War of Portugal
In office 22 July 1915 – 10 May 1917
President	Teófilo Braga Bernardino Machado
Prime Minister	José de Castro Afonso Costa António José de Almeida Afonso Costa
Preceded by	José de Castro
Succeeded by	Afonso Costa
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Portugal
Interim
In office 14 May – 15 May 1915
President	Manuel de Arriaga
Prime Minister	Himself
Preceded by	Augusto Vieira Soares
Succeeded by	Augusto Vieira Soares
Interim
In office 12 July 1916 – 25 April 1917
President	Bernardino Machado
Prime Minister	António José de Almeida
Preceded by	Augusto Vieira Soares
Succeeded by	Augusto Vieira Soares
Minister of the Colonies of Portugal
Interim
In office 14 May – 15 May 1915
President	Manuel de Arriaga
Prime Minister	Himself
Succeeded by	José Jorge Pereira
Governor-General of Angola
In office 1912–1915
President	Manuel de Arriaga
Prime Minister	Augusto de Vasconcelos Duarte Leite Augusto de Vasconcelos (as interim) Duarte Leite Afonso Costa Bernardino Machado Victor Hugo de Azevedo Coutinho
Minister of the Colonies	António Macieira (as interim) Joaquim Cerveira de Albuquerque Artur de Almeida Ribeiro Alfredo Augusto Lisboa de Lima Alfredo Rodrigues Gaspar
Preceded by	José Maria Teixeira Guimarães
Succeeded by	António Júlio da Costa Pereira de Eça
Personal details
Born	José Maria Mendes Ribeiro Norton de Matos (1867-03-23)23 March 1867 Ponte de Lima, Portugal
Died	3 January 1955(1955-01-03) (aged 87) Ponte de Lima, Portugal
Parent(s)	Tomás Mendes Norton (father) Emília da Conceição de Matos Prego e Sousa (mother)
Military service
Allegiance	Kingdom of Portugal Portugal
Branch/service	Portuguese Army
Years of service	1898–1935
Rank	General
Battles/wars	WW1

José Maria Mendes Ribeiro Norton de Matos, GCTE, GCL (23 March 1867 – 3 January 1955) was a Portuguese general and politician.

1880s

After attending school in Braga, and attending the Escola Académica in Lisbon starting in 1880, Norton de Matos started his degree in mathematics at the University of Coimbra in 1884. During that period, he joined the army, and, between 1888 and 1890, he completed the General Staff Course in the Military Academy. After several minor assignments in the armed forces, in 1898, he departed for Portuguese India as the head of the newly-formed Department of Surveying of Portuguese India. He remained in that position until 1908. The year after, he traveled in Macau and China as part of a diplomatic mission tasked with redrawing the borders between the two.

In 1911, after the proclamation of the republic (5 October 1910), he joined the Democratic Party. His political influence continued to increase and, in April 1912, he was nominated Governor-General of Angola, a territory bordering German South West Africa.

1910s–1930s

Norton de Matos returned to Portugal in 1911, after Portugal became a republic in 1910. He was prepared to serve the new regime, and he soon became the chief of staff of the 5th military division. In 1912, he was initiated into the Free Masons. That same year, he gained the post of Governor-General of Angola. His leadership was considered instrumental in protecting the Portuguese colony from foreign powers such as Britain, Germany and France.

Norton de Matos was recalled to Portugal in 1915 due to the new political situation in Portugal during the First World War. There, he was named Minister of War. In this capacity, he was responsible for organizing the Portuguese intervention on the Western Front.

In 1917, Norton de Matos exiled himself to London after disagreements with the new republic. He later returned and became the Portuguese delegate to the Paris Peace Conference, which led to the Treaty of Versailles. Later he returned to Angola as High Commissioner of the Republic, from 1921 to 1923, before becoming Portuguese ambassador to the United Kingdom from 1923 to 1926. With the start of the Portuguese Military Dictatorship, he was removed from this position.

In 1929 he was elected Grand Master of the Free Masons in Portugal, a position he held between 1930 and 1935. In 1935, Salazar (prime minister since 1932) banned all secret organizations and removed from state functions a number of people deemed insufficiently faithful to the regime, among them Norton de Matos. Matos then stepped down from his position as Grand Master.

1940s

Norton de Matos returned to teaching, accepting a position as professor at the Instituto Superior Técnico, but was dismissed from his chair. He then became a leading opposition figure against the Salazar regime. In 1943, he was named to the National Council of Movement of National Antifascist Unity, or MUNAF, and on his 81st birthday, he was named the candidate of the opposition now united under the Movement of Democratic Unity (MUD, the successor organization to the MUNAF after 1945) for President in the election of 1949, under the dictatorial Estado Novo regime, while demanding freedom to advertise his message and the close inspection of votes. The regime refused these demands, and Norton de Matos withdrew from the election on 12 February 1949.

Despite his fierce opposition to Salazar, Norton de Matos also defended Portuguese colonialism. In 1953, he published a book titled Africa Nossa (Our Africa) where he made an appeal for policies that would promote massive territorial occupation by Portuguese white settlers in Africa and at the same time support the gradual assimilation of the African populations.

Norton de Matos continued to lead a democratic opposition movement centered in the city of Porto. He died in his hometown of Ponte de Lima in 1955.