Percy Noble

Admiral Sir Percy Lockhart Harnam Noble (16 January 1880 – 25 July 1955) was a Royal Navy officer who served in both World Wars.

Noble rose to the rank of admiral and was Commander-in-Chief, Western Approaches for two crucial years during the Second World War, before being posted to the United States as Head of the RN Admiralty Delegation.

Naval career The son of an Indian Army officer, Colonel Charles Noble and Anne née Hay, he was educated at Edinburgh Academy, before being commissioned in the Royal Navy on 15 January 1894.

Promoted as lieutenant on 1 April 1902, Noble was posted to the battleship HMS Hannibal serving in the Channel Fleet. He transferred to HMS Russell on her commission in February 1903. He served in the Grand Fleet during the First World War. Noble was remembered by those who worked with him at Derby House as an easy-going commander, and an agreeable person to work with. Always conciliatory, Noble was an expert at building consensus around his chosen courses of action. Noble was, although not forced, certainly pushed out of Western Approaches to make room for Admiral Sir Max Horton, whose combative personality and experience in the submarine service made him the ideal candidate in the eyes of some to take the war to the U-boats. She died in 1909, having one son (qv. Sir Allan Noble MP). He married secondly, in 1913, Celia Emily (later Lady Noble), daughter of Robert Kirkman Hodgson DL and Lady Norah née Boyle, having another son, Charles Noble.

A memorial to Admiral Sir Percy Noble was placed in the north choir aisle of Liverpool Cathedral in 1957.

Honours and awards

Rear-Admiral of the United Kingdom 1945 Hon. LLDs from Liverpool and Belfast Universities