Lieutenant-Colonel Howard Norman Cole (22 March 1911 – 3 May 1983) OBE TD F.R.Hist.S DL was a serving officer in the British Army during the Second World War and was an author of books on military subjects. Cole was born in Peckham in London in 1911, the son of Howard Norman Cole, a Works Manager for Diatomite, and Mabel Alice Cole. A writer, historian and lecturer, Cole was the Deputy Lieutenant of the County of Hampshire from 1965 to 1983, the Honorary Remembrancer for the Borough of Aldershot from 1963 to 1974, and Curator of the Aldershot Local History Collection.