Godfrey Norton

Godfrey Norton is a barrister with chambers at the Temple, a respectable professional man of London. He becomes engaged to the opera singer Irene Adler and is instrumental in securing her affections and commitment. Though Norton appears only briefly in the narrative—primarily at the church ceremony where he recruits the narrator as a witness to his wedding—he is crucial to the resolution of Sherlock Holmes's case. His marriage to Irene Adler provides her with a reason to flee England and abandon the compromising photograph that the The King of Bohemia of The King of Bohemia sought to recover, making Norton an unwitting but pivotal figure in the defeat of Sherlock Holmes's mission. Little is revealed of his personality or background beyond his status as a respectable barrister and his evident devotion to Irene Adler.