765 Ernest Noel

Constituency  : Dumfries  Burghs  1874-86

Ernest  took  over  from  Robert  Jardine  at  Dumfries. He  lost  out  to  Jardine  in  1868  but  had  a  clear  run  against  a  Conservative  in  1874.

Ernest  was  a  nephew  of  the  Earl  of  Gainsborough. He  was  educated  at  Edinburgh  and  Cambridge. He  was  elected  a  Fellow  of  the  Royal  Geological Society  in 1849. In  the  early  1870s  he  travelled  in  Egypt  where  he  befriended  the  artist  Edward  Lear.

Ernest  became  interested  in  artisans'  dwellings  and  from  1880  was  chairman  of  the  Artizans, Labourers  and  General  Dwellings  Company. He  was  responsible  for  Noel  Park  in  Tottenham, one  of  the  first  garden  suburbs. He  was  also  a  director  of  an  insurance  company  and  the  Mercantile  Investment  Trust.

Ernest  was  a  supporter  of  female  suffrage.

In  1886  Ernest  was  on  the  platform  at  the  public  meeting  in  Edinburgh  where  Hartington  and  Goschen  launched  their  campaign  of  opposition  to  the  Home  Rule  Bill. In   the  1886  and  1892  elections  he  stood  as  a  Liberal  Unionist  in  Stirlingshire  but  was  unsuccessful.

He  died  in  1931  aged  99.