Editing Gilbert Norman (section)

==Early life==
Norman was born in 1915, in [[Saint-Cloud]], [[Hauts-de-Seine]], to an English father and a French mother and was educated in France and England. He joined the army, receiving a commission in the Durham Light Infantry in November 1940 and was subsequently recruited into the Special Operations Executive (SOE).<ref name="Vance">{{cite book |last1=Vance |first1=Jonathan F. |title=Unlikely Soldiers |date=2008 |publisher=Harper Collins |location=Toronto |isbn=9780002007351 |page=170}}</ref>
Norman was considered an "ideal recruit" for SOE with "great qualities of leadership and physical endurance." He was "handsome, gray-eyed and swarthy, mustacioed and capable."<ref name="Rose">{{cite book |last1=Rose |first1=Sarah |title=D-Day Girls |date=2019 |publisher=Broadway Books |location=New York |isbn=9780451495099 |page=82}}</ref>