Norman Wilson, A Rotary Star.
“He Lived His Life To The Full"

We have received many moving tributes to our dear friend, colleague and fellow rotarian, and we show below those from our “Boss” – Keith Brownlie, District Governor, Essex and East Herts., and from those who knew him best.

DG Keith Brownlie

As your District Governor it was both a privilege and an honour to meet Rotarian Norman in person and to be asked to contribute to your tributes to a Rotary star.

Norman read out the Objects of Rotary at the Rotary Club of Billericay’s Charter Lunch held at the Magic Mushroom restaurant late last year. I spoke to him following that lunch and was both fascinated and impressed to hear of his WW2 exploits.

Totally unassuming he was present at the Japanese surrender at VJ Day. A very modest man he told me he had been offered the sword of surrender by the senior Japanese officer. As an experienced aviator he was to become a test pilot for Amstrong-Whitworth and flew in a number of post war prototypes.

Up, Up And Away!
I was deeply saddened to hear he had passed away to clear blue skies above a few days short of his 99th birthday. I pay my deepest respects to a true Rotarian who always put service above self.  He will be sadly missed, and I well remember his last words to me.

“Keith, we must live life to the fullest!”

They do not make them like that anymore. RIP Norman.

Fellow Rotarian and old friend Patrick Rothon

Where do you begin with someone like Norman?

Both Carol and myself had the privilege to know Norman for almost 50 years. Norman came to Billericay in the early seventies as Managing Director of a leading safe manufacturer called John Tann. It was through this link and the Billericay industrial Group that my father Felix met Norman and shortly after introduced him into our Rotary Club.

I know Norman has said to me on many occasions he would not have made so many firm friends had it not been for Rotary.  Norman has held every office in our club over the years including District Group Study Exchange team leader to the USA.

He always put service above self, and recently gave us an interesting talk full of facts and information about Aeroplanes and our aviation history which was one of his great interests.

I know it’s a cliché to say that generation will never be seen again.  However, in Norman’s case it is true, he was a perfect gentleman and dear friend you could always count on.

Fellow Aviator Malcom Acors

Of all the many tributes and messages about Norman, there was a special one from one aviator to another aviator when Malcolm gave us a moving tribute to Norman, not just to Norman’s life, but also a shared experience of flyers in war and peace.

At a “memorable” lunch on April 24, Malcolm had organised a generous shot of whisky (in memory of many similar drinks he had shared with Norman in their many meetings in Norman’s earlier years at the club). A drink for every one of our full house of members plus our guest speaker Barry Howe from the Mayflower Club (more of his talk in our May issue) and Sue Ginn, supportive wife of out Treasurer Mike.

Malcolm added some dimensions to what it was to be a pilot and what it must have been when Norman was flying during World War 11.  “Norman was not just an aviator supreme on ‘planes and helicopters; he was a brilliant airman and pilot with 7,000 hours to his credit. He flew seaplanes into the most dangerous battle zones and ended being there at the surrender ceremony in Singapore.”  What a memory is that!

Movingly, after adding his own tribute Malcolm quoted two poems by John Gillespie Magee, which were dedicated: “To those who gave their lives to England during the Battle of Britain and left such a shining example for us who  follow.”  
The less well known of the two is “Per Ardua”, and Malcolm followed that with the much more famous “High Flight”.
Per Ardua
(To those who gave their lives to England during the Battle of Britain and left such a shining example to us who follow, these lines are dedicated.)

"They that have climbed the white mists of the morning;
They that have soared, before the world's awake,
To herald up their foeman to them, scorning
The thin dawn's rest their weary folk might take;
Some that have left other mouths to tell the story
Of high, blue battle, quite young limbs that bled,
How they had thundered up the clouds to glory,
Or fallen to an English field stained red.
Because my faltering feet would fail I find them
Laughing beside me, steadying the hand
That seeks their deadly courage –
Yet behind them
The cold light dies in that once brilliant Land ....
Do these, who help the quickened pulse run slowly,
Whose stern, remembered image cools the brow,
Till the far dawn of Victory, know only
Night's darkness, and Valhalla's silence now?"

High Flight

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, – and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of – wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air…

Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or ever eagle flew –
And, while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

The epitaph on the gravestone of the most famous British pilot of World War I, Major J T Byford McCudden VC, DSO and Bar, MC and Bar, MM, Croix de Guerre, sums up our feelings:

Fly on dear boy from this dark world of strife
On to the land of promise, to eternal life.

Norman will be with his brother who was the first British bomber pilot killed in the Second World War, after dropping leaflets on Berlin from a Halifax.  May they fly high in blue skies and fair weather, forever!  We raised our glasses ina toast to Norman:

We meet ‘neath the sounding rafter
And the walls around are bare:
As they shout back our peals of laughter
It seems they are dead there.
Then stand to your glasses, steady!
We drink in our comrades’ eyes.

Close Friend and Fellow Nonagenarian Ben Clarke

On a personal level no Club member was closer to Norman than three-times past president and fellow nonagenarian, Ben Clarke.

Ben recalls some magic moments in their distinguished Rotary times.
"I will always be so grateful to Rotary and the club for bringing Norman and me together all those years ago. Norman and I were strange bedfellows; he from an engineering background and me from a retail background.  
Immediately we both realised we had much in common and, additionally, enjoyed each other’s company.    
We began our association by visiting air museums and eventually widening our museum visits to staying overnight on longer trips such as Manchester, York, Southampton, Yeovilton and others.
I started to keep a record; I gave up when the list got too long.
Remember Me?
Just two particular moments I’d like to mention. 

I was a guest of Norman’s when we visited the Union Jack club in London, as we walked through the reception, a voice called out Hello Norman, Norman did not immediately recognise the caller and said so! The man said you should remember me I was one of your aircrew on a number of occasions.

Another time I remember, Norman arranged for the two of us to visit the British Museum to see a film.  We were shown into a small viewing booth and there we watched a film of the victory fly past of the Japanese surrender at Singapore.  Norman was pilot of one of several Sunderland’s that took part.

Our friendship developed further and we with Angela and Brenda, now went to music concerts in London, always enhanced with Normans special smoked salmon sandwiches.   We went on several excellent holidays together, to lreland, and to Germany to visit his brother’s grave, and on to Belsen.  We spent a wonderful month touring Canada and a cruise to Alaska.

I have been privileged to have had Norman as a friend, always a gentleman. I shall remember him with much gratitude, affection and respect.