Norman McDermid Wishart was born at Edina Cottage, Dumfries on 10 January 1899 and the last of six children of Aitken Wishart, a printer from Kinghorn, and his wife, Catherine Watt Fulton. He attended Dumfries Academy and won prizes for woodwork as well as becoming a proficient violinist, after which he studied at the Heriot-Watt Technical College in Edinburgh. 1915 was a significant year for young Norman for at age 16 his mother died and his older brother Aitken joined the Royal Engineers and went off to war in Iraq. He served his apprenticeship with Arrol-Johnson Ltd. and was afterwards appointed draughtsman at Humber Ltd.

Keen to play his part, Norman enlisted aged 19 at the start of October 1918 and joined the Royal Air Force. He arrived at the Cadet Distribution Depot from the Nottingham recruiting depot on 4 October and was attached to the 8th Cadet Wing at West Sandling Camp, Shorncliffe four days later. On 26 October he transferred to No. 6 Cadet Wing in Bristol and although he trained to become a pilot, it is not known if he became a fully qualified airman.

After the war, Norman moved back to Coventry where he married Florence May Gilbert on 7 June 1924. Two children were born of the marriage, a girl and boy, and he worked as section-leader with Armstrong Siddeley Motors before returning to Humber-Hillman as a technical engineer until his untimely death following a short illness at 51 Lillington Road in Leamington Spa on 23 January 1935. There was a large congregation present at his funeral and he was buried in Coventry Cemetery.

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