Background
Norton was born in Edmonton, London, but grew up in Margate, Kent, and joined the Royal Army Ordnance Corps (which later amalgamated into the Royal Logistic Corps) as a private in 1983.
Norton was born in Edmonton, London, but grew up in Margate, Kent, and joined the Royal Army Ordnance Corps (which later amalgamated into the Royal Logistic Corps) as a private in 1983.
He reached the rank of warrant officer class 1 and was appointed a conductor, the most senior non-commissioned appointment in the British Army, before being commissioned as a captain on 8 July 2002. He was promoted to major on 31 July 2008. On 1 August 2013, Norton retired from the army on medical grounds.
A captain at the time, he was second-in-command of the American Combined Explosives Exploitation Cell (CEXC) based in the outskirts of Baghdad.
Going to the aid of a United States Army patrol that had been attacked by an improvised explosive device (IED) on 24 July 2005, he was checking for the presence of further devices when a secondary victim-operated IED exploded. He lost his left leg and part of his left arm, and he sustained serious injuries to his other leg and lower back.
Despite his injuries, he continued to give instructions to his team, suspecting that further devices might be in the vicinity. He refused to be evacuated until he was certain that all personnel on the ground were aware of the danger.
A third device was subsequently located and dealt with the following day.
The award was gazetted in a supplement to the London Gazette of 24 March 2006.
