Gerard Ross Norton

Cleared enemy posts alone to help break Italy's Gothic Line.

Gerard Ross Norton was born on 7 September 1915 at Herschel in South Africa's Cape Province. He attended school at Mount Frere and Selborne College in East London, where he played cricket, rugby and tennis. In 1935 he joined Barclays Bank at Umtata. He undertook peacetime training with the Middellandse Regiment from 1936 to 1938 and joined the Kaffrarian Rifles at the outbreak of the Second World War.

The regiment went to North Africa in July 1941. Norton served in the Bardia fighting and the defence of Tobruk, rising to sergeant. When Tobruk fell in June 1942, he and Lieutenant Lawrence Herbert Bailie escaped with a small party. They crossed the desert for 38 days before reaching Allied lines in July. Norton received the Military Medal for his leadership during this escape, announced on 24 November 1942.

After recovering in Cairo, he returned to South Africa for officer training and received a commission in August 1943. Assigned to the 6th South African Armoured Division's officer pool, he sought front-line employment and was attached to the 1/4th Battalion, Hampshire Regiment in Italy. During the war he married Lilla Ellen Morris; they had three daughters.

On 31 August 1944, he commanded a platoon of D Company during the attack on Monte Gridolfo, a fortified position in the Gothic Line. Enemy fire from a flanking valley stopped the advance. Norton went forward alone, destroyed one machine-gun position with a grenade, then attacked another containing two machine guns and fifteen riflemen. Using his submachine gun, he killed or captured the defenders. Under fire from a self-propelled gun, he cleared a defended house and continued leading his platoon against the remaining positions.

After the fighting, he was treated at the South African hospital in Bari, where his twin sister Olga was serving as a nurse. His Victoria Cross was announced on 26 October 1944. King George VI presented it at Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh. Promoted to captain in December 1944, he continued serving with the Hampshires, including later duties in Greece and Austria, before returning to South Africa and being demobilised.

In 1946 he moved to Southern Rhodesia and established Minnehaha tobacco farm near Raffingora. He became a Rhodesian citizen and received the freedom of East London in 1956. During Rhodesia's later conflict he chaired his local defence committee. In the mid-1980s he retired to his daughter's farm at Trelawney. After the family was evicted in November 2002, he moved to Harare. Norton died there on 29 October 2004, aged 89, and was cremated at Warren Hill Crematorium.

Official Victoria Cross citation The London Gazette, Supplement, 26 October 1944, pages 4899-4900:

Lieutenant Gerard Ross Norton, M.M. (9111V), South African Forces (attd. The Hampshire Regiment).

In Italy, on the 31st August, 1944, Lieutenant Norton was commanding a platoon during the attack on the Monte Gridolfo feature, one of the strong points of the Gothic Line defences, and one which contained well sited concrete gun emplacements. The leading platoon of his Company was pinned down by heavy enemy fire from a valley on the right flank of the advance.

On his own initiative and with complete disregard for his personal safety, Lieutenant Norton at once engaged a series of emplacements in this valley. Single handed, he attacked the first machine gun position with a grenade, killing the crew of three. Still alone, he then worked his way forward to a second position containing two machine guns and fifteen riflemen. After a fight lasting ten minutes he wiped out both machine gun nests with his Tommy-gun, and killed or took prisoner the remainder of the enemy.

Throughout these attacks Lieutenant Norton came under direct fire from an enemy self-propelled gun and, whilst still under heavy fire from this gun, he went on to clear the cellar and upper rooms of a house, taking several more prisoners, and putting many of the enemy to flight. Although by this time wounded and weak from loss of blood, he continued calmly and resolutely to lead his platoon up the valley to capture the remaining enemy positions.

Throughout the attack Lieutenant Norton displayed matchless courage, outstanding initiative and inspiring leadership. By his supreme gallantry, fearless example and determined aggression, he assured the successful breach of the Gothic Line at this point.