Ernest Noel
(1831-1931)
10 May 1861

Volume 3, page 221, sitting number 3576.

[A portrait by Silvy of this sitter's father appears on page 27 of this section.]

Born on 18 August 1831 at Walthamstow, the son of the Reverend and Honourable Baptist Wriothesley Noel and Jane née Baillie, Ernest Noel was a philanthropist and the Member of Parliament for Dumfries between 1874 and 1886. 

His first wife, whom he married in 1857, was Louisa Hope Milne. After her death in 1870, he married secondly on 15 October 1873, Lady Augusta Keppel (1838-1902), daughter of the 6th Earl of Albemarle. At the time of his second marriage his address was Hingham Hall, Norfolk. His second wife died in 1902, and in 1909 he married, thirdly, Sydney, daughter of Reverend Sydney Saunders.

From 1883 to 1928 he was the chairman of the Artisans’, Labourers’ and General Dwellings Company. The Noel Park estate in Haringey, an important, early experiment in social housing now designated a conservation area, was built by the company and named after its chairman.

Ernest Noel died on 20 May 1931, three months before his 100th birthday, at Dulaney House, Patching, Sussex.  He left an estate valued at £56,424.