COLOUR SERGEANT Norton is presently attached to the Serving Company as (Q)PSI. It is his second of his duty with us, having soldiered previously with the Company in 1975.

The Colour, for all his youthful appearance, is a well-seasoned professional soldier of the Old School, and a fearless campaigner who has seen more of exotic and far-away places than most of us have had hot dinners. Life for him began in 1957, when he left school to join the Merchant Navy and for 21 years he sailed the trade routes of the world, seeing life, and one imagines, splicing the mainbrace at frequent intervals. But for some reason, he decided that the life of Jolly Jack the Tar was not for him. He went ashore and enlisted to the Colours, into the finest Regiment north of the Highland Line, The Gordons.

The well ordered and routine life of the barracks with Johnny Cope in the morning, square bashing, blancoing and spud barbering may not have appealed to this dry-docked sailor at first, but within a year he was on the move again, often. From 1961 to 1964 he saw service with 1 Gordons in Kenya, Mombasa and Swaziland; from 1965 to 1966 he was in Borneo with General Walker's Commonwealth Brigade, fighting Indonesian communists in the jungle. From 1967 to 1970 in BA0R, and Cyprus in 1971. In later years he has completed three tours of duty in Northern Ireland, as well as overseas tours in Singapore, Penang and New Zealand. In between there have been garrison tours at Dover, Fort George, Edinburgh and Minden. He has attended many schools and courses. The list is formidable - ZB298 Radar, Tactics, APC Instructor, APC Instructor DM/A1 APC(T), Helicopter Handling and Porterage, and Unit MT, as well as all infantry small arms and heavy weapons courses; Outward Bound courses in Norway and at Aberdovey Sea School in Wales. Though he would be the last to admit it, C/Sgt Norton has so far lived a life of action and adventure, and one which a lot of the schizoid bank clerks, insurance brokers and civil servants who read this would envy, and sigh ruefully. It hasn’t been all fun and all adventure; things never work that way in the Army. But the life hasn’t done him much harm. Indeed, it has made him a most unforgettable character.

To those who aren’t acquainted with The Colour, he is a man with a hard, humourless face, respectful and correct to a fault. He is a small man, but he walks tall, and with such self confidence looks every inch "the old soldier". To those of us who know him, that hard and humourless face conceals a personality of great warmth and an infectious sense of humour. His store of jokes, both printable and otherwise, is bottomless, and he has that rare quality to provoke good humour in even the dullest individual. Conversely, he can be stern and businesslike when the situation demands it, and can become a distant and ominous presence to junior soldiers, whom he will blast mercilessly for being idle on parade, or such similar misdemeanours. Nor will he suffer fools gladly.

The Colour has a store of military knowledge and experience, exceeded only by that of the SPSI himself. The attitude common to a lot of old soldiers - "I know all the answers, you know - all; so you can sweat", isn't recognized by The Colour. His counsel is free; indeed he has saved many a subaltern from making a monumental cock-up. And in a unit where enthusiasm and goodwill outweigh expertise, it is of great value. He is, to quote the M.I.T. textbooks "Fair, firm and friendly" and no soldier can aspire to higher ideals than those.

C/Sgt Norton will be leaving the Army at the end of the year, to take up a civilian job in Industrial Security Management. He already spends a lot of his spare time training his Dobermann Pinscher guard dog, and members of the Company who have encountered this fearsome canine have no doubts that The Colour will succeed in his ambition. At other times he enjoys playing squash, and shooting. He is an excellent shot and has represented the Company at Battalion meetings and at ASSAM. He is married with two daughters and a son, and lives in Whetstone.