13 Facts About Conrad Noel

Conrad le Despenser Roden Noel was an English priest of the Church of England.

Conrad Noel's paternal grandfather was Charles Noel, 1st Earl of Gainsborough, and his paternal grandmother Lady Gainsborough was a lady-in-waiting to Queen Victoria.

Conrad Noel's parents were both Anglican, though in his youth, Conrad Noel repudiated the Calvinism of his mother and attended higher-church services with his father.

Conrad Noel was educated at Wellington College and at Cheltenham College, then an all-boys public school.

Conrad Noel then entered Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, but was rusticated for a year and chose not to return to complete his degree.

Conrad Noel underwent training for ordination at Chichester Theological College, an Anglo-Catholic theological school.

Conrad Noel spent time as a curate at St Philip's in Newcastle, under W E Moll.

Conrad Noel founded the socialist organization Catholic Crusade in 1918, which had some impact in the origins of Trotskyism in Britain.

Conrad Noel himself had drawn much inspiration from the Middle Ages only because he felt that this period, despite many oppressions, had a certain vigour and freedom which expressed itself in communal life; and he borrowed much from the ancient English uses and ceremonials for the worship at Thaxted.

Conrad Noel joined the Independent Labour Party, but in 1911 became a member of the newly formed British Socialist Party.

Conrad Noel supported the British Provisional Committee for the Defence of Leon Trotsky, and signed a letter defending Trotsky's right to asylum and calling for an international inquiry into the Moscow Trials.

Conrad Noel was a friend of the composer Gustav Holst who lived for some years in the town of Thaxted.

Conrad Noel died of cancer on 22 July 1942 aged 73.