Born on 9 January 1882 at the Cape of Good Hope, one of the sons of a naval surgeon who later became Director-General of the Navy Medical Service as Sir Henry Norbury KCB, he was educated at St Paul's and Merchant Taylors' Schools and St Thomas's Medical School which he entered in 1899. He had a distinguished career obtaining the William Tite Scholarship in 1900, the Peacock Scholarship in 1901, a second tenure of the Peacock Scholarship in 1902, the Cheselden Medal and Treasurer's Gold Medal in 1904, and after qualification the Beaney Scholarship in 1906. He qualified in 1904 with the Conjoint Diploma and the degrees of London University and held a series of clinical appointments at St Thomas's culminating in 1907 with two years as resident assistant surgeon. In 1907 he was admitted as a Fellow, although he had actually passed the Final examination twelve months earlier. His contemporaries at the time of his admission included Webb-Johnson and Gordon-Taylor. One of his most treasured possessions was the traditional pair of gold cuff links engraved with the College Crest presented to him in 1957 by the College Council Club as a member of the Council who had been a Fellow for fifty years. In 1911 he was appointed as assistant surgeon to the Mildmay Mission Hospital and acted as a demonstrator of anatomy at St Thomas's. Shortly before the outbreak of war in 1914 he was appointed to the staff of St Marks Hospital but then joined the RAMC and worked as a surgeon in the hospital at Netley, being awarded the OBE. On demobilisation in 1919 he was appointed to the surgical staffs of the Royal Free Hospital, West Middlesex Hospital and the Belgrave Hospital for Children. At the College he was a Hunterian Professor in 1941 lecturing on carcinoma of the rectum, an Erasmus Wilson Lecturer from 1942-46 and Bradshaw Lecturer in 1948. He was a member of the Court of Examiners from 1930-1940, a member of Council from 1938-1953, being Hunterian Orator in 1953 and Vice-President. He maintained his attachment to and devotion for the College to the end of his life, struggling up to the Gordon-Taylor lecture shortly before his death and insisting on the Vicary Lecture being read to him only two days before he died. He became President of the Medical Society of London, of the Hunterian Society of which he was Hunterian Orator in 1955 and of the Harveian Society. He was also an enthusiastic member of the Medico-Legal Society. Norbury was a sound general surgeon with a special interest and experience in proctology, in which field he was regarded as one of the leading authorities and on which subject he published a number of communications. He was always courteous, a kind but searching examiner and one who was never too busy to give help or advice to younger members of the profession. Very properly and as an indication of affectionate regard he was often known by his nickname 'Polly' at St Thomas's and by his wife as Peter. A devout practising Christian, he was Churchwarden for over thirty years in the ancient parish church at Cowden, where he had his country house. In 1915 he married Grace Rogerson by whom he had four daughters. He died on 31 October 1967 at Cowden aged 85. He was interred in the churchyard the ground for which had been a gift from him some years previously.