Noel Laurence

{{Infobox military person

|name =Sir Noel Laurence

|image =Horton Lawrence.jpg

|caption =Noel Laurence (right), commander of E1, with Max Horton (left), commander of E9, in the Baltic

|birth_date =27 December 1882

|death_date = {{dda|1970|1|26|1882|12|27|df=y}}

|birth_place =Maidstone, Kent, England

|death_place = Chertsey, Surrey, England

|placeofburial =

|placeofburial_label =

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|allegiance ={{flag|United Kingdom|23px}}

|branch ={{navy|United Kingdom|23px}}

|serviceyears =1899–1943

|rank =Admiral

|servicenumber =

|unit =

|commands = {{HMS|E1}}
{{HMS|J1}}

|battles =World War I

|battles_label =

|awards =Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath
Distinguished Service Order & Bar

|relations =

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}}

Admiral Sir Noel Frank Laurence {{postnominals|country=GBR|KCB|DSO*}} (27 December 1882 – 26 January 1970) was a notable Royal Navy submarine commander during the First World War.

Early life

Laurence was born in 1882 in Kent, the son of Frederic Laurence, {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|JP}}.{{cite news |title=Deaths: Admiral Sir Noel Lawrence |work=The Times |page=3 |date=27 January 1970 }} He joined the Royal Navy in 1899. By 1904 he was a lieutenant and a submarine specialist.

Naval service

In 1914, he commanded the submarine {{HMS|E1||2}}, it operated in the Baltic Sea to attack the German High Seas Fleet. While in the Baltic Laurence worked with the Russians and in 1915 E1 stopped a naval attack on Riga when it sank a German transport and damaged the battlecruiser {{SMS|Moltke}}. As well as being awarded the Distinguished Service Order for his work in the Baltic the Russians awarded him the Order of St. George (4th Class) and the Order of St Vladimir (4th Class with swords).

Laurence's next command was the submarine {{HMS|J1||2}} which torpedoed two German battleships near Jutland. He was awarded a bar to his Distinguished Service Order for his further operation in submarines in the 1917 New Year Honours,{{London Gazette |issue=29886 |date=1 January 1917 |page=10|supp=y}} and was made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour by the French. At the end of the war he was commander of {{HMS|Bonaventure|1892|6}}, a submarine depot ship, and its associated submarine flotilla.

Laurence became Commodore of Devonport Naval Barracks in 1930, Rear-Admiral Submarines in 1932 and Vice-Admiral Aircraft Carriers in 1936. He went on to be Admiral Commanding Reserves in 1938 before he moved to Ministry of Aircraft Production as the naval representative; he retired in 1943. He was made Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in the 1938 Birthday Honours.{{London Gazette |issue=34518 |date=7 June 1938 |page=3687 |supp=y}}

He was promoted admiral on 1 August 1940.{{cite web|url=http://www.dreadnoughtproject.org/tfs/index.php/Noel_Frank_Laurence|title=Noel Frank Laurence|publisher=dreadnought project|accessdate=17 January 2019}}