HIS LIST OF ACHIEVEMENTS
IS REMARKABLEturret finally caused his kidneys to pack up. It possibly saved his life: it has been reported that more aircrews lost their
lives in Blenheims during World War 2 than any other aircraft. It was a part of his life about which he rarely spoke.
He then became an Air Ministry inspector which suited him well for his move to Lea Francis.
In 1969 Norman and Nan moved about four miles from Browns Lane where they rented a property named Mill
Farm. Joe Barker, who ran the Jaguar apprenticeship scheme, approached Norman with an idea. "I understand you
have a cottage attached to your new home - if you are not using it - would you be prepared to take apprentices in?
Norman's reply was: "No, I have apprentices all day and I don't want them at night when I get home!
"Joe Barker spoke with Nan, and she told him she would consider it! She had been the manager of the Rootes
VIP dining room just after we were married, so she'd got a lot of experience cooking meals for people. I thought,
all right, it will be something for Nan to do, if that's what she wants." I did stipulate I didn't want to have these
apprentices sitting around here watching television. We had to provide them with an evening meal, but no breakfast
and they would live independently. I told Nan that if they lived in the cottage, they stayed in the cottage!
"Over the next sixteen years we were there we took loads of them - perhaps forty or fifty. I think Tim Nevinson
stayed two years, and I'd be sitting in the lounge on a nice big settee with the television on and really a bit tired
because I'd been driving all day and my neck was aching, and Nan would come in the kitchen and say: 'Tim has
come in the kitchen. He's got this exam at Jaguar tomorrow and doesn't know how to work out the gear ratios.'
"Nan, they said, was a great asset to them because she mothered them, and really looked after them well. They
were great characters, those lads. It was just another side of the Jaguar family. That's why, when I meet these
ex-apprentices all round the world, I still use this terminology - I say to them, 'I'm just coming round, seeing how
the family is getting on.' That's how the Jaguar family thing originated."
Ironically, Norman was very closely linked publicly with the beautiful XJ13, but in truth he had nothing to do
with its development and it was only his infamous crash in the wet at MIRA while filming was being conducted for
the V12 engine launch that brought them to the attention of the press years later. There were only three roll-overs
Norman endured at MIRA in Jaguars. The others were a C-Type and a D-Type.
That though is testament to his bravery and determination. His was a remarkably clean record when you think
of the amount of high speed testing and record breaking he did in his long career.
Consider the post-1951 C-Type, disc brake testing, Dunlop tyre tests, D-Type including part C/D-Type XKC054,
E1A, E2A, and production E-Type, 'Mk1', Mk2, and XK120/MkVII/XKC054/D-Type record attempts at Jabbeke in
Belgium with a top speed of 173.412 mph! There was also MkVII development with automatic gearboxes and into
the MVIII and MkIX, the XK120, XK140 and XK150, the XK-SS, D-Type, 420, MkX, 420G, Daimler DS420 and
SP250 development, XJ6 and 12, XJ-S and XJ40!
That is, of course, a truly remarkable achievement, and something which will almost certainly never be matched
into this era of specialists in particular fields. Norman was great company, and a true asset for Jaguar from 1951
until his passing. To his son Graeme, daughter Linda and his grandchildren we offer our deepest sympathies.EDITION 198 JAGUAR MAGAZINE 57