Editing Norman Tebbit (section)

==Early life and career before politics==

Born in [[Ponders End]], [[Middlesex]],<ref>{{Cite book | last=Kavanagh | first=Dennis | title=A Dictionary of political biography | location=Oxford | publisher=Penguin | year=1998 | isbn=0-19-280035-3 | url-access=registration | url=https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofpoli00kava }}</ref> to working-class parents Leonard and Edith Tebbit,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp06507/norman-tebbit-baron-tebbit|title=Norman Tebbit, Baron Tebbit|work=npg.org.uk}}</ref> he went to [[Edmonton County Grammar School]],<ref name="Whoswho"/> which was then an academically selective state school in north London.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Tebbit, Baron, (Norman Beresford Tebbit) (born 29 March 1931)|url=https://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/10.1093/ww/9780199540884.001.0001/ww-9780199540884-e-37213|access-date=12 June 2021|website=WHO'S WHO & WHO WAS WHO|year=2007|language=en|doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u37213|isbn=978-0-19-954088-4}}</ref>

At the age of 16, Tebbit got a job with the ''[[Financial Times]]'' and had to join [[NATSOPA]]. Disliking rules that caused members who criticised union officials to be fined or expelled (and thus lose their jobs), he recalled vowing to "break the power of the [[closed shop]]".<ref name="kynaston2008">{{Cite book |last=Kynaston |first=David |title=Austerity Britain, 1945–1951 |publisher=Bloomsbury |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-8027-7958-8 |location=London |pages=466 |oclc=608558459}}</ref>

In November 1950, Tebbit was commissioned into the [[Royal Air Force]] for [[National service (United Kingdom)|national service]] in the rank of [[pilot officer]].<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=39111 |date=2 January 1951 |page=62 |supp=y}}</ref> He was promoted to [[flying officer]] in April 1952.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=39784 |date=20 February 1953 |page=1094 |supp=y}}</ref> During his time in the RAF Tebbit flew [[Gloster Meteor|Meteor]] and [[De Havilland Vampire|Vampire]] jets. In July 1954, at [[RAF Waterbeach]] near [[Cambridge]], he had to escape from a burning Meteor 8 by breaking open the [[Aircraft canopy|canopy]], unknowingly fracturing two of his [[vertebra]]e in the accident.<ref name="FlyPast">''[http://www.flypast.com/ FlyPast]'' (Key Publishing) magazine interview (in May 2014) with Norman Wells, October 2014 edition.</ref>

On leaving the RAF, Tebbit joined [[BOAC]] in 1953 as a navigator and pilot, while initially continuing to fly in the Royal Auxiliary Air Force with [[No. 604 Squadron RAF|604 (County of Middlesex) Squadron]] at [[RAF North Weald|North Weald]] in Essex.<ref>Norman Tebbit, Upwardly Mobile.</ref> Of his airline navigation training, he later said: "In those days it was a considerable academic syllabus. You had to be up to speed on [[spherical trigonometry]] to get through it".<ref name="FlyPast"/>

During his time at BOAC, he was an official in the [[British Airline Pilots' Association]]. He flew [[Avro York]]s, [[Canadair North Star|Argonauts]], [[Bristol Britannia|Britannias]], [[DC7]]Cs and the [[Boeing 707]].