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Naval witness of D-Day and the Tokyo surrender dies aged 98
20 March 2025
Few men witnessed both D-Day and the Japanese surrender – the last act of World War 2.
That number is even fewer today with the passing of one of the last survivors of the two momentous days in world history.
Naval gunner Norman ‘Norrie’ Bartlett died one week short of his 99th birthday – having lived life to the full from the humblest of beginnings and having ensured that the legacy of the WW2 generation was never forgotten.
Born in London in 1926 and adopted by the Bartlett family as an infant, a trip on the Isle of Wight ferry to watch the Coronation Review at Spithead in 1937 when he declared “It’s the Navy for me!” sealed a lifelong commitment to the Senior Service.
He tried to join up in 1940 – but at 14 was turned away. He succeeded in pulling the wool over the recruiter’s eye two years later aged 16¼.
Colour-blindness ruled out his chosen career as a signaller, he didn’t fancy being a stoker, trained as an aviation mechanic and then re-trained as a gunner after which he joined the Fleet.
He saw action in the Atlantic and Arctic convoys aboard destroyers HMS Bulldog and Dragon, took part in both diversionary actions for the Normandy landings (Operation Fortitude) and the invasion itself until Dragon was crippled by a German midget submarine and subsequently scuttled in the Seine Bay.
Norrie was assigned to brand-new destroyer HMS Barfleur gearing up to join the Pacific – but found time before she sailed to marry Betty in December 1944.
The ship arrived in the Far East in July, just in time for the final weeks of conflict with Japan and accompanied the US flagship, battleship USS Missouri, for the Japanese surrender.
Norrie spent the rest of his time in the Service with Barfleur, helping to repatriate Allied prisoners of war, before returning himself to the UK in 1946 to demobilise.
As a boiler engineer in civvy street he would find himself working on the construction of the UK’s first-generation nuclear submarines.
With the help of his father-in-law, he helped to establish the Royal British Legion branch in Englefield, near Reading, post-war.
And as a pensioner he returned to sea… joining his grandson CPO Nick Clark aboard HMS Invincible as part of a ‘families at sea’ package from Gibraltar to the carrier’s home base of Portsmouth.
Extremely active in veterans’ affairs until his final weeks, Norrie addressed 75th anniversary VJ Day commemorations at the National Memorial Arboretum alongside HRH Prince Charles in 2020 and joined fellow veterans at the RBL’s Festival of Remembrance.
He was also a keen singer, adding his vocals to Hart Male Voice Choir near Odiham, who adapted – then performed a version of You Raise Me Up – as a tribute.
Thanks to the charity Taxis for Military Veterans in the final two years of his life he was able to pay two visits to Normandy to honour former shipmates, as well as visit the battlefields and memorials of Ypres and Arnhem.
He died in Frimley Park hospital near his Surrey home on Monday, surrounded by his family.