Born on 12 March 1887 the son of Alexander Noble and Margaret Paterson his wife, he was educated at Edinburgh University and University College, London. He held resident posts at Leith, Greenwich, and Queen Charlotte's Hospital, and served in France during the first world war. He took the Fellowship in 1920, was senior medical officer at the Orthopaedic Hospital at Oswestry, and went to the Mayo Clinic with a Rockefeller scholarship in 1924. He was then appointed Professor of Surgery at Chulalongchorn University, Bangkok, Siam, a chair he filled with distinction for fifteen years; he received the title of Emeritus Professor on retirement. While in Siam he was surgeon to the King and was awarded the Orders of the Crown and the White Elephant. During the second world war he was surgeon-in-charge of the Ebbw Vale General Hospital. He settled at Southampton and acted as a surgeon to the Ministry of Pensions, but spent some time in travel to Ceylon and Nyasaland in search of the warm climate which he loved. He died at Bournemouth on 16 December 1959 aged 72. He had married in 1914 Cecilia Farmer, who survived him with their daughter. Publications: Myositis ossificans. *Surg Gynec Obstet* 1924, 39, 795-802. Pseudocoxalgia. *J Bone Jt Surg* 1925, 7, 70-84. Klippel-Feils syndrome, numerical reduction of cervical vertebrae, with J M Frawley. *Ann Surg* 1925, 82, 728-734. Acute bone atrophy, with E D W Hauser. *Arch Surg* 1926,12, 75-94.