1919 - 2007

Standing at just 155cm tall with a slight build like a jockey, Patricia ‘Pat’ Norton was a champion swimmer who represented Australia at the 1936 Summer Olympics and won multiple medals at the 1938 British Empire Games (now known as the Commonwealth Games).

Pat Norton was born on March 20, 1919, in Randwick, in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs. She was the only child of Cecil Norton, a jeweller, and Bertha Minnie Turnbull, who ran away with a South African wrestler when Pat was very young. Norton went to board in Bondi with the mother of Harry Nightingale, a well-loved Bondi swimming coach and lifesaver. Pat joined the Bondi Ladies’ Amateur Swimming Club (BLASC) and trained with Nightingale’s group. Norton first came to public notice at the age of 14, when she was known as ‘Nipper’ Norton. Only a year later, she became the Australian Junior and Senior 100m freestyle champion.

Norton was among the early wave of representative swimmers the BLASC produced, representing Australia at the 1936 Berlin Olympics as a 17-year-old. She competed in women’s 100m backstroke event but was eliminated in the semi-finals. Two years later, at the 1938 British Empire Games held in Sydney, Norton won the gold medal in the 110-yard backstroke competition. She also won a silver medal with the Australian team in the 4 x 110-yard freestyle relay, and a bronze medal in the 3 x 110-yard medley relay, anchoring in both events. She also competed in the 440-yard freestyle.

After the Empire Games, Norton returned to work in a bank while teaching underprivileged children to swim in Tasmania. She met and married Bill Down, a pilot officer who flew outgunned Wirraways against Japanese Zeros in New Guinea and died after a training accident. Norton lost her unborn child soon after. She was inspired to take flying lessons - something Bill had always encouraged. She bought a mono-winged Moth Minor and, together with a friend, Nan Watts, they became the first females to fly across Bass Straight in 1947. Taking off from Cambridge Aerodrome outside Hobart at 9am, Watts piloted the plane to Flinders Island, before Norton took the controls for the remainder of the flight, arriving at Yarrum in Victoria about 4pm.

The adventurous pair caught the attention of Bruce Small Limited – manufacturers of the new Malvern Star Auto-Byke, a 98cc Villiers two-stroke moped. Norton and Watts embarked on a road trip from Melbourne to Sydney and back, and they appeared in a full-page magazine advertisement for the bike, making a huge impact.

Norton continued swim coaching most of her life, establishing her own school at St Ives and a family recreation club at Pennant Hills. She also ran a driving school and a guest house, competed in masters swimming events, helped boys at the Mount Penang correctional centre and was active as an ambassador at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney.

Norton died in Killarney Vale on the Central Coast in New South Wales on September 2, 2007, aged 88.