Eulogy by Noel's son Peter: My Father Noel, whom we honour here today, worshipped in this church for 43 years with his dear wife, Joan – our wonderful Mother. He was a man of utter integrity – a soldier committed to duty and service, a man of deep faith, and a sportsman. A professional in all he did – yet also with a quirky sense of humour. He was a disciplined and ordered man. We children soon learned that – ‘there is a place for everything and everything must be in its place.’ He had a high work ethic, he would say - ‘if a job’s worth doing its worth doing well.’ He valued loyalty, honesty, courtesy and hard work. He believed in correct behaviour and good manners, and always looked the gentlemen. He exuded confidence – encouraging us to ‘always enter a building as if you owned it.’ His career in the Army, the Church, family and the playing of sports were his life’s corner stones. A suitable epitaph would be “A good and substantial innings, played for the team and always with a straight bat.” He loved the game of cricket. Mum always said he was married to cricket first and her second!! He was a member of the MCC for over 40 years and was to be seen at Lord’s frequently. He had an encyclopaedic memory on the game having collected a library of some 800 books (which he readily sold in the mid ‘50’s to pay for fares to the UK). In old age he never failed to recall minute details of distant test matches, and also milestones of his Army life. But not if he had taken his pills that morning! He was enormously proud of our Mother and of his three children. He thought the world of his 7 grandchildren and 8 great-grandchildren. He loved them all and they brought out his sense of good fun. He gave them all silly names – ‘Ho’ for Austyn, ‘Hotch a ma Cotcha’ for Amanda, ‘Princess Cooie Wooie’ for Victoria and ‘The Digeroos’ for his Australian Nephews. He would play the fool with them and invent silly games. And of course they all loved him for it. In India he enjoyed his tins of State Express cigarettes, his ‘chota peg’ of whisky at sun down, his glass of pink gin with water and the old Austin and Hillman cars struggling to cope with trips to Simla and other hill stations. He usually sent our brother John on ahead by train with the servants and heavy baggage as the advance guard. We remember the house dogs, shooting trips, racquet games at various clubs, dances, garden parties, the berating of his Batman and all the formality and glitter of functions at the Officers Mess. For Mum especially life in India was so very different from her own experiences in Derby. But her close support of Dad as he progressed in his Army career was something he was always profoundly grateful for. The closing days of the Raj were still rich in all the splendour and pageantry of service life. Indeed a privileged life. He wrote a booklet for Officer Cadets on Army etiquette which included such items as the correct size and layout of ones visiting card, the right way and place to wear a trilby hat and how to approach a senior officer to seek permission to marry. All serious issues in their day! This book was published and later a copy given to the Staff Collage at Sandhurst along with some of his other military memorabilia. Transition from military to civilian life on returning to the UK was not something Dad found easy. He did not suffer fools gladly and could react sharply to any incivility or insubordination he encountered. In his ordered world of ‘instant obedience to the word of command’ any unfortunate ‘bureaucratic buffoon’ or ‘nincompoop’ would have been dismissed with the withering retort that, had they been in the Army, they would have been horse whipped or shot – preferably both!! We children certainly knew when to jump and when to hide! Yet he had deep humility. When his conscience told him he had over reacted, he would be full of remorse and contrition, and ask to be forgiven. Dad was born on 6th May 1913 in Ferozepopre, Punjab, India. He was the eldest of four children. Of his three sisters, one survives and I am delighted to say that Aunt Esme is with us here today. As an historical reference, other notable births in 1913 were future US Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, Danny Kaye, Jesse Owens and Archbishop Makarious of Cyprus. 1913 was also the year in which Scott died in the Antarctic, Emmeline Pankhurst was advocating votes for women and the Panama Canal opened. George V was on the throne, Lloyd George was the Prime Minister and of course it was one year before the First World War started. So much of what we now take for granted in our lives of instant communication, health and social care, travel and relative prosperity were then unimaginable. Even in this centaury Dad could not absorb some of the advances of the modern age – the mobile phone and computer passed him by and indeed he would say he knew more about hairnets than the internet! His parents – Edward and Doris were also born in India as were his grandparents – William and Clara. Indeed there was a strong historical family connection to India stretching back at least three generations. He was sent to boarding school at the age of 8 – first to St Joseph’s College (Christian Brothers) and then to North Point (Jesuit), both in Naini Tal in the Himalayas. His education by both these strict and disciplined orders would be considered harsh by today’s standards. But Dad survived, albeit without the close association of his parents, whom he only saw in the school holidays. In 1932 at the age of 19 he set sail to England with his parents and sisters to pursue his chosen career of engineering, breaking with the family tradition of medicine. He found his way to Derby where he got a job at Aiton & Co in the drawing office. Here he helped design the high pressure piping for the engine and boiler rooms for the liner ‘Queen Mary’. Later he transferred to LMS Railway and then to Rolls Royce, ending up as a technical assistant to the Works Manager in the aero engine division – all Derby based. During this time he studied electrical and mechanical engineering at Derby Technical College attending night classes 5 days a week after a full day’s work and a quick turnaround at his digs. He eventually obtained his HNC, and in later life was elected a Chartered Engineer and appointed a Fellow of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers. He found time to indulge in his favourite activities of playing sports – hockey for the Derby Hockey Club and the Derbyshire Rams and cricket for the Squires. The article in the local paper reporting our parents wedding referred to Dad as ‘a well known sportsman’. He joined the Knights of St. Columba at age 23 and at a social gathering in Church met John McLean and through him his daughter Joan, whom he was to marry on her 21st birthday in July 1940. Dad was 27. After the outbreak of war he volunteered to join the army and was commissioned in London as a Second Lieutenant in the Indian Army Ordinance Corps a few months before his marriage. Immediately after their honeymoon in the Peak District he took his new bride to India. My brother John came along in 1941, I in 1944 and our sister Colette in 1947. His active war years were spent in the Middle East commanding armaments workshops and arsenals. He was seconded to the British Commonwealth Occupation Force in Japan and later, after Indian independence in 1947, joined the new Indian Army along with some 300 other officers. Service life then was indeed a privileged life and he enjoyed every moment rising to the rank of Brigadier (substantive full Colonel). He would say his further promotion was hampered by his inability to pass his Hindi exams! He had many posting and responsibilities in India – Kirkee, Bombay, Rawalpindi, Madras, Delhi, Lucknow and others. He transferred to IEME in 1946 and continued to play cricket for Army Commands and Combined Services into his late thirties. Returning to the UK in 1958 he joined the Indian High Commission in London on military inspection and procurement and was a member of the Diplomatic Corps. We lived in Ealing and moved to Ruislip in 1965. He continued to be active with the Knights of St. Columba, started his cricket library again, joined Parish discussion groups, learned to garden (mowing the lawn in neat stripes – both ways, no doubt pretending it was a cricket square!) and was encouraged by Mum to give up smoking – even one a day was one too many form her! After retirement he joined the British Mechanical Engineering Confederation and then Taylor Woodrow, and later became a consultant to the Law Society as a technical expert on industrial accidents to individuals. He was appointed a Governor of Douay Martyrs School in Ickenham and I am delighted that the then Head – Marie Stubbs, is with us today and will say a few words later. It was through her influence that in 2001 Dad was awarded a Papal Knighthood – the Order of St. Gregory the Great. He, and the whole family, were so proud of this honour. Also, the schools new gymnasium and hall was named after him as a mark of gratitude for all he had done for them. Dad was a man of the world and knew how officialdom worked, and helped many to engage with it successfully. He enjoyed helping others and giving any who asked the benefit of his advice and considerable experience. So we remember Dad/Papa/Noel – each of us in our own way. He has lived through 10 decades of history. He has witnessed world shaking events, communed with men of high office and led by example. He has also helped the disadvantaged, been a strong advocate for the less fortunate and been enriched by his faith, family and many friends. He has now reached that final pavilion – heaven, and is at rest from his long and highly successful innings of 95. In his last years, when asked how he was, would simply reply – ‘I’m soldering on.’ We thank Fr. Michael, Monsignor John and our cousin Bishop Paul and for con-celebrating today’s service. To close, I feel the final verse of Kiplings poem ‘If’ is appropriate: If you can talk with crowds – and keep your virtue Or walk with Kings – nor loose the common touch, If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you If all men count with you but none too much If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds worth of distance run Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it And – which is more – You’ll be a man my son God bless you Dad. You will be missed by all who knew and loved you. May you rest in eternal peace.