2nd Lieutenant, 12th Battalion Manchester Regiment.
Killed in action 4th August 1916, age 19.
Remembered on the Thiepval Memorial.
Former member of the University Officer Training Corps.
Norman was born in 1898 at Belmont, Surrey to Alfred James and Emily Augusta Blythe of Swinton. His father was master of the Swinton Schools of the Manchester Poor Law Guardians. He was educated at Manchester Grammar School where he distinguished himself in swimming and was a member of the school Officer Training Corps (O.T.C). In 1913 he joined the University O.T.C.
Norman was gazetted on 3rd August 1915 to the 12th Battalion Manchester Regiment and died 12 months later during the Somme offensive. Blythe was leading “Q” Company in an early morning offensive at Delville Wood. The bombers were reported to have made it into the wood and up to the German trenches just 50 yards beyond. Blythe was ahead of the bombers and did not return when the bombers had to fall back into the wood. His body was found by a gunner of the Royal Garrison Artillery on 20th November 1916.
His brother Percy Alfred Blythe, died in July 1916.