Charles Wake Norman was born on 13 February 1891 in Marylebone, London, England, and was educated at Eton College and then the University of Cambridge.

Norman was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the Queen's Own West Kent Yeomanry, a Territorial Force unit, on 6 October 1910.

[1] After being released in 1919, Norman remained in the army, initially with the 9th Lancers serving around the British Empire, in India and Egypt.

His fellow students there included Philip Christison, Evelyn Barker, Oliver Leese, Eric Dorman-Smith, Eric Hayes, John Whiteley, Ronald Penney, John Hawkesworth, Clement West, Christopher Woolner, Robert Bridgeman and Stanley Kirby.

[4] He went on to be GOC Aldershot District in 1944[5] before becoming Major-General in charge of Armoured Fighting Vehicles at Middle East Command in 1945.