He was born in Birmingham in 1869, built a working model steam engine at age 12, apprenticed as a toolmaker, contacted rheumatic fever and so was known as "Pa" as a young man.

In 1898, at the age of 29, started his first business supplying components for the bicycle trade, known as the Norton Manufacturing Company.

At that time the French were leading the world in the design of the new-fangled internal combustion engine. Norton teamed up with the British importer building frames, and then in 1902 he produced his first real Norton, called the Energette, a conventional pedal cycle with a 143cc Clement engine.

During 1904 he began to market machines under his own name, and the rest is history.

from Norton, the Racing Story, by Mick Walker