Michael Noble, Baron Glenkinglas

{{Short description|Scottish Conservative and Unionist politician}}

{{Other people|Michael Noble}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2017}}

{{Use British English|date=March 2017}}

{{Infobox officeholder

| honorific-prefix = The Right Honourable

| name = The Lord Glenkinglas

| honorific-suffix = PC

| image = Photograph of Michael Noble, Baron Glenkinglas.jpg

| caption = Photograph of Noble by Elliott & Fry,
taken 26 September 1962.

| office = President of the Board of Trade

| primeminister = Edward Heath

| term_start = 20 June 1970

| term_end = 15 October 1970

| predecessor = Roy Mason

| successor = John Davies

| office1 = Secretary of State for Scotland

| primeminister1 = Harold Macmillan
Alec Douglas-Home

| term_start1 = 13 July 1962

| term_end1 = 16 October 1964

| predecessor1 = John Maclay

| successor1 = William Ross

| office2 = Lord Commissioner of the Treasury

| primeminister2 = Harold Macmillan

| term_start2 = 29 November 1961

| term_end2 = 13 July 1962

| predecessor2 = Robin Chichester-Clark

| successor2 = Gordon Campbell

| parliament3 = United Kingdom

| constituency_MP3 = Argyll

| term_start3 = 12 June 1958

| term_end3 = 8 February 1974

| predecessor3 = Duncan McCallum

| successor3 = Iain MacCormick

| birth_date = {{birth date|1913|3|13|df=y}}

| birth_place = Las Palmas, Canary Islands, Spain

| death_date = {{death date and age|1984|5|15|1913|3|13|df=y}}

| death_place = Cairndow, Argyll and Bute, Scotland

| party = Conservative

| alma_mater = Magdalen College, Oxford

| profession = Landowner, farmer

| spouse = Anne Pearson

| children = 4

}}

Michael Antony Cristobal Noble, Baron Glenkinglas, PC (13 March 1913 – 15 May 1984) was a Scottish Conservative and Unionist politician.

Noble was the youngest son of Sir John Noble, 1st Baronet, and the grandson of Sir Andrew Noble, 1st Baronet, and was educated at Eton College and Magdalen College, Oxford. A farmer, he was president of the Black Face Sheep Breeders' Association and the Highland Cattle Society. He was an Argyll County Councillor and a director of Associated Fisheries.

From a by-election in June 1958 until his retirement in 1974 he was Member of Parliament for Argyll.

Noble was a Scottish whip from 1960 and Lord Commissioner of the Treasury from 1961. He was Secretary of State for Scotland from 1962 to 1964 in the governments of Harold Macmillan and Alec Douglas-Home, taking over from John Maclay after the Night of the Long Knives. He returned to government as President of the Board of Trade in 1970 and as Minister for Trade from 1970 to 1972 under Edward Heath.

As Scottish Secretary, he presided over the last execution in Scotland when Henry John Burnett was hanged at Craiginches Prison in Aberdeen on the morning of 15 August 1963 by the hangman Harry Allen for the murder of merchant seaman Thomas Guyan.

On 3 May 1974 Noble was elevated with a life peerage as Baron Glenkinglas, of Cairndow in the County of Argyll.{{London Gazette |issue=46284 |date=7 May 1974 |page=5585}}

Although he was a good 25 years younger than the architectural historian Harry Stuart Goodhart-Rendel, the two had a very friendly feud. Noble is said to have joked that they were "best of enemies."

He died in May 1984, aged 71.