Gerard Noel (politician)
Gerard James Noel PC, DL, JP, styled The Honourable Gerard Noel from birth, was a British Conservative politician.
Early life
Noel was the eldest son of Charles Noel, 1st Earl of Gainsborough and, his third wife, Arabella, daughter of Sir James Hamlyn-Williams, 2nd Baronet. From his father's second marriage to Elizabeth Grey, he had an elder half-brother Charles, who married Lady Ida Harriet Augusta who succeeded their father as the 2nd Earl of Gainsborough. From his parents marriage, he had three siblings, Henry Lewis Noel, Lady Mary Arabella Louisa Noel, and Lady Catherine Hamilton Noel. From his father's fourth marriage in 1833 to Lady Frances Jocelyn, he had two younger half-siblings: Roden Noel and Lady Victoria Noel.Career
Noel was elected Member of Parliament for Rutland in 1847. He served under Lord Derby and then Benjamin Disraeli as a Lord of the Treasury from 1866 until 1868, and then briefly under Disraeli as Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury between November 1868 and the fall of the Conservative government in December of the same year.After the Conservatives returned to power in 1874 he was sworn of the Privy Council. From 1876 until 1880 Noel served under Disraeli as First Commissioner of Works. In 1883 he resigned from his seat in parliament through appointment as Steward of the Chiltern Hundreds.
Apart from his political career Noel was also a Captain in the 11th Hussars and a Deputy Lieutenant and Justice of the Peace for Rutland.
Personal life
On 30 June 1863, Noel was married to Lady Augusta Mary, the second daughter of Lady Lucy Eleanor Sherard and Col. Henry Cecil Lowther of Barleythorpe Hall. She was the also sister of Henry Lowther, 3rd Earl of Lonsdale. At his home, Catmose House, in Oakham, Rutland, he developed a fine garden which employed 15 gardeners. Together, they were the parents of:- Gerard Cecil Noel, who married his cousin Madeline Edith Clifton, a daughter of Thomas Henry Clifton, MP for North Lancashire, and Madeline Diana Elizabeth Agnew, in 1897.
- Henry Cecil Noel, who married Frances Mary Cockerell, a daughter of Frederick Pepys Cockerell, in 1902. After their divorce in 1926, he married, secondly, Janet Muriel Baird, daughter of William Baird and Caroline Muriel Burn-Callander, in August 1926.