After being educated at
Radley College and
St John's College, Cambridge, Norton studied at the
Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and was
commissioned into the
Grenadier Guards on 1 July 1984. Promoted to
captain on 27 November 1987, he attended the
Military Academy of the German Armed Forces in Hamburg in 1993, Norton was deployed to
Bosnia and Herzegovina as Military Assistant to the Chief of Staff within Headquarters
Implementation Force (IFOR) in 1997, he joined the directing staff at the
Joint Services Command and Staff College that year, he was deployed to Afghanistan as Director Plans and Policy within the
Combined Forces Command Afghanistan. Norton went on to be commander of the
38th (Irish) Brigade in
Northern Ireland in June 2007, and commander of British troops there in January 2009, before being made Deputy Regional Commander in
Helmand Province in early 2010. Promoted to
major general on 8 July 2011, Norton became
General Officer Commanding London District and
Major-General commanding the Household Division on the same date. He became regimental lieutenant colonel of the Grenadier Guards on 10 June 2012. He was present at the Queen's
Diamond Jubilee celebrations in June 2012, and the
London Olympics in August 2012. Norton was appointed a
Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order on 25 June 2013, Serving in Northern Italy, he went on to be Deputy Commander
NATO Rapid Deployable Corps - Italy in
Solbiate Olona in July 2013. and to the European Union in July 2016. Norton retired from the British Army on 16 June 2020. ==Later career==