Product Code Database
Air Commodore Sir Henry Nigel St Valery Norman, 2nd Baronet, (21 May 1897 – 19 May 1943) was a consulting civil engineer and Royal Air Force officer during the first half of the 20th century. Who Was Who, A & C Black, 1920–2008; online edn, Oxford University Press, December 2007. Retrieved 23 November 2010
In 1926, Norman married Patricia Moyra, eldest daughter of the late Lieutenant Colonel J.H.A. Annesley. During that year, Norman volunteered for reserve service as a pilot with No. 601 (County of London) Squadron in the Auxiliary Air Force, and he later assumed duties as a flight commander.
In 1935, in partnership with architect Graham Dawbarn, Norman founded the consultancy firm of Norman and Dawbarn, responsible for designs of buildings and lay-outs of many municipal airports in the UK and overseas, including those at Gatwick Airport, Birmingham, Ringway, Jersey Airport, and Guernsey Airport.
In 1939, Norman succeeded as 2nd Baronet.
Norman's final appointment came in 1942, when he was appointed Air Officer Commanding No. 38 Wing. On 19 May 1943, Norman died in the post-crash fire when Lockheed Hudson IIIA FH168 that was to carry him to North Africa force-landed after takeoff from RAF St Eval.
Norman's eldest of three sons was Mark Annesley, born on 8 February 1927, who succeeded him as third baronet. Mark Norman worked for Bristol Siddeley Engines as company secretary. Nigel Norman's second son was Desmond Norman, co-founder of the aircraft manufacturer Britten Norman. Torquil Norman, third of Sir Nigel's sons, founded Bluebird Toys and the Roundhouse Trust.
Second World War
In 1940, Norman commanded the Central Landing Establishment based at RAF Ringway. From the early days of the Second World War, he worked in close collaboration with the British Army on developing airborne troops. Norman controlled the air side of the first British paratroop raid on Italy shortly after it entered the war. He not only arranged all the details, but took a personal interest in all the numerous training exercises before the raid, and accompanied the paratroops on the expedition, returning regretfully, he said, in an aircraft, as he was not at that time a proficient parachutist. When he got back, he went on a parachute course. He distinguished himself in Operation Biting, the raid by British parachute troops on the coast of northern France in March 1942, when the radio location post at Bruneval, 12 miles north of Le Havre, was destroyed. It was a combined operation, the carrying force of R.A.F. bombers under Norman's command and led by Wing Commander P. C. Pickard.
Postscript
Norman was a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society, a member of the Aviation Committee of the London Chamber of Commerce, and a member of the Council of the Air Registration Board, of which body he was also chairman of the Design and Construction Panel.
Notes
External links
Categories: 1897 Births, 1943 Deaths, Aviators Killed In Aviation Accidents Or Incidents In England, Fellows Of The Royal Aeronautical Society, Royal Air Force Air Commodores, Baronets In The Baronetage Of The United Kingdom, Commanders Of The Order Of The British Empire, Graduates Of The Royal Military College, Sandhurst, English Civil Engineers, British Army Personnel Of World War I, Royal Garrison Artillery Officers, Royal Corps Of Signals Officers, Family Of Sir Henry Norman, 1st Baronet, Royal Air Force Personnel Killed In World War Ii, Victims Of Aviation Accidents Or Incidents In 1943
|
|
