George Noble, RNR
| Born | Feb 1901 | ||
| Died | Jan 1978 | (76) |
| Ranks
Decorations |
Warship Commands listed for George Noble, RNR
| Ship | Rank | Type | From | To |
| HMS Retako (FY 838) | MS Trawler | 27 Nov 1939 | 30 May 1940 | |
| HMS Marconi | T/Skr. | MS Trawler | 8 Aug 1940 | 20 Sep 1941 |
| HMS De La Pole (FY 558) | T/Skr. | MS Trawler | Oct 1941 | 18 Dec 1941 |
| HMS Santa (FY 1986) | T/A/Skr.Lt. | MS Whaler | Mar 1942 | 21 Apr 1942 |
| HMS Santa (FY 1986) | T/A/Skr.Lt. | MS Whaler | 17 Jun 1942 | late 1943 |
Career information
George Noble was was born at 7, Wood Street, Grimsby, Lincolnshire in February 1901, the son of Capt. George William Noble who also served in minesweepers during WW1.
George Noble's sea-going career started in the Royal Navy in 1915, as a 14yr old cadet, with basic training at Shotley Naval Barracks. He then served in HMS Revenge as a Boy Telegraphist during WW1 and was at Scapa Flow when the scuttling of the German Fleet took place. At the end of the war he could see no great future in the RN and returned to Grimsby in 1919 where he commenced a career in the fishing industry. He achieved his skipper's qualification in 1931, gained a command and became a noted White Sea fisherman by all accounts. During the 1930's he lost the sight of his right eye when a heavy sea crashed through the trawler's wheel-house window and he was put ashore in Reykjavik for medical attention.
Following the outbreak of WW2 in 1939, he immediately volunteered for service and was accepted, gaining the rank of Skipper-Lieutenant, despite his disability. At the end of the war he eventually returned to Grimsby and resumed his career in fishing. However, in the later 1940's & early 1950's a combination of a glut of fish and series of bad markets led to the eventual loss of command of Grimsby trawlers, but not before he had served a term as President of the Grimsby Trawler Officers' Guild.
After a series of shore jobs he resumed deep-sea fishing on the Grand Banks and out of Vigo, Spain. In the early 1960’s he gained employment with the Great Grimsby Coal, Salt & Tanning Company as an instructor and demonstrator of the company’s fishing industry products and worked in the then British Guyana, Trinidad and the Mediterraenean out of Piraeas, Greece. After these contracts had been completed he returned to Grimsby and was employed at the Coal Salt Company's net works repairing trawl nets. It was during this time that he responded to a notice in the local Grimsby Evening Telegraph requesting volunteers for what was then the Royal Naval Mine Watching Service (R.N.M.W.S.), which eventually became the Royal Naval Auxiliary Service (R.N.X.S.), and was able to put his skill and experience in seamanship and mine-sweeping duties to good use. Despite having reached an age when membership of the service was no longer permitted, Skipper-Lieutenant George Noble R.N.R. remained a staunch supporter of the Grimsby Branch of the R.N.X.S. and all things naval until his death in January 1978 at the age of 77.
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