Lance Corporal Alexander Noble

Lance Corporal Alexander Noble, 1st/7th ( Territorial ) Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers. He was killed in action in Belgium on 26th April 1915 and is commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial, Ypres, Flanders, Belgium. The Battalion had only landed on the Continent on 20th April and were rushed into Belgium to support an attack by the 1st/4th and 1st/6th Battalions, Northumberland Fusiliers on the village of St. Julien. Heavy casualties were suffered with 2 Officers and 172 Other Ranks killed and 9 Officers and 217 Other Ranks wounded. This was a dreadful initiation into the Great War for the Territorials. He was the son of the late John and Jessie Noble of Spittal and was employed as a grocer with the Tweedside Co-operative before enlisting. He was also a good singer and sang in the Wesleyan Church choir and the Berwick Choral Union.  His brother Charles also fell – see above. The photograph shows the impressive Memorial raised to the 50th ( Northumbrian ) Division of which the Battalion was part until February 1918 when it was transferred to the 42nd ( East Lancashire ) Division as the Pioneer Battalion. It was erected near the village of Wieltje in the Ypres Salient which was near to where the Division fought its first action of the War on 26th April 1915.

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