Noel, Roden Berkeley Wriothesley

(1834-1894)

   The son of Charles Noel, Lord Barham, later first Earl of Gainsborough. He was god-child of Queen Victoria, educated at Harrow School, and after graduating M.A. in 1858 from Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was one of the Cambridge Apostles, he spent a year traveling in the Libyan desert. He turned to poetry and his practical philanthropy earned him the title of "The Children's Knight." Toward the end of his life, he frequently lectured on poets, donating the proceeds to the welfare of poor children. He died in the train station of Mainz, Germany, where he is buried. Some of his publications: Behind the Veil, and Other Poems, 1863. Beatrice, and Other Poems, 1868. The Red Flag, 1872. Livingstone in Africa, 1874. Little Child's Monument, 1881. Songs of the Heights and Deeps, 1885. Poor People's Christmas, 1890. My Sea, and Other Poems, 1896. Some of his poems: "A Vision of the Desert," "Ah! Love Ye One Another Well!" "Alpine Hunter's Song," "Byron's Grave," "The Nile, Africa, and Egypt," "The Slave-Trade," "The Water-Nymph and the Boy."

   Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. Lyra Celtica: An Anthology of Representative Celtic Poetry. E.A. Sharp and J. Matthay, eds. John Grant, 1924. Noel Roden, Paragon Review of a Legacy of Words (http://www.hull.ac.uk/oldlib/archives/paragon/1998/noel.html). Poems of the Hon. Roden Noel, A Selection. Walter Scott, 1892. The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia).