Place Name
Air Commodore Sir Henry Nigel St Valery Norman (May 21, 1897 – May 19, 1943), more usually known as Nigel Norman, co-founded Airwork Services with Alan Muntz to build Heston Aerodrome which was laid out near here. In 1931, he was appointed Officer Commanding of No 601 Squadron and three years later transferred to the Auxiliary Air Force Reserve of Officers in the rank of squadron leader. 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, Birmingham, Ringway, Jersey, and Guernsey. He returned to military service full-time as the commandant of the Central Landing Establishment, which trained regiments in how to use parachutes and glider landing. He died in a post-crash fire when the Lockheed Hudson IIIA FH168 that was to carry him to North Africa force-landed after takeoff from RAF St Eval.
