Robert John Baptist Noel (born 15 October 1962) is an officer of arms at the College of Arms in London.[1] Formerly the Bluemantle Pursuivant, then the Lancaster Herald, he has been Norroy and Ulster King of Arms since April 2021.
The younger son of Gerard Eyre Wriothesley Noel, of Westington Mill, Chipping Campden, a barrister, he is in remainder to his grandfather's earldom. Robert Noel was educated at Ampleforth College, Exeter College, Oxford (MA) and St Edmund's College, Cambridge (MPhil).
Noel trained as a shipbroker, then as a library assistant at the College of Arms before joining the auctioneers, Christie's of London. He was appointed Bluemantle Pursuivant of Arms at the College of Arms on 27 October 1992,[2] and succeeded Sir Peter Gwynn-Jones as Lancaster Herald of Arms in Ordinary on 21 September 1999.[3] On 6 April 2021, he was appointed Norroy and Ulster King of Arms in succession to Timothy Duke.[4] In that role, he proclaimed the accession of Charles III from Hillsborough Castle,[5] and took part in the Royal Procession at the Coronation of Charles III and Camilla.[6]
He is a Freeman of the City of London and has been admitted as a liveryman of the Glaziers' Company. He serves as the genealogist for the Imperial Society of Knights Bachelor.[7]