A fine and interesting Great War Western Front and Second World War July 1941 King’s Commendation for Brave Conduct group awarded to Captain G.F. Norris, Royal Engineers, sometime Royal Sussex Regiment, who was commissioned during the Great War, before being decorated in the ranks on 22nd July 1941, and then commissioned again, he having once sacrificed £20,000 to pay off his companies debts in 1937.
Group of 3: 1914-1915 Star; (40447 SJT. G.F. NORRIS. R.E.); British War Medal and Victory Medal; (2.LIEUT. G.F. NORRIS.), mounted swing style as worn.
Condition: Good Very Fine.
Together with the following quantity of original documents and ephemera:
King’s Commendation for Brave Conduct Certificate dated 22nd July 1941, issued to Corporal (A/Lance Sergeant) G.F. Norris, Royal Engineers;
Soldier’s Service and Pay Book for the Second World War period;
Soldier’s Pay Book for the Second World War period;
Army Council Letter of Thanks for Services Rendered, issue to Captain G.F. Norris, Royal Engineers, dated 30th June 1945;
Certified Copy of recipient’s Birth Certificate;
a newspaper cutting titled ‘Sacrificed £20,000 for Company - Granted Discharge from Bankruptcy’, dated 19th March 1937;
funeral receipt relating to recipient’s funeral in 1953;
a letter from his family mentioning some details of recipient’s life;
and a photograph of the recipient as a civilian.
George Frederick Norris was born in Great Bolton, Lancashire, on 26th February 1886, the son of Charles William Norris, a timber merchant, and his wife, Maria Thompson Norris, formerly Cunliffe, of 53 Bridgeman Street, Great Bolton.
Norris served during the Great War as a Sergeant (No.40447) with the Royal Engineers, seeing service on the Western Front from 11th May 1915, he was then commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant into the Royal Sussex Regiment, and was also awarded the Silver War Badge.
Norris went on to become a successful business man, making considerable money when working a managing director of J.W. Thornily (Stoke) Limited, a building contractors firm located in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, however he also acted a guarantor for the company and when it went into liquidation, instead of letting himself be declared bankrupt, as the Stoke Dispatch for 19th March 1937 recorded, he gave up £20,000 of his own private fortune, a considerable amount of money at the time, in order to pay off the debts. The paper reported “Mr. Norris is rather a phenomenon, he is bankrupt, and yet he is quite solvent.’ At the time that his company filed for bankruptcy, it was employed in £500,000 worth of work for the Stoke Corporation, but the company failed because it was short of capital. with the official receiver stating that “Mr Norris had lost about £40,000 through no fault of his own.”
With the outbreak of the Second World War, Norris re-enlisted into the ranks as a Lance Corporal (No.1888844) with the Royal Engineers in April 1940, being then aged 49. Having been promoted to Corporal, and holding the rank of Acting Lance Sergeant, Norris was a King’s Commendation for Brave Conduct in the London Gazette. Norris was later commissioned again, and was released from service in the rank of Captain in the Royal Engineers on 30th June 1945.
Norris is recorded as having been billeted during the war in London with a lady by the name of Grace Kiefer. She bought farms in Flamstead, Hertfordshire, and after the war he moved with her as a farm manager. Whilst working a residing at the College Farm at Flamstead near Saint Alban’s, Norris died in January 1953, and is buried there.
