NOEL, William Gerard (1965-2024)

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Obit in the Telegraph -  William Noel, medieval manuscript expert who led deciphering of lost works by Archimedes – obituary (telegraph.co.uk)

He was the son of Henry Methuen NOEL (1927-1998), scion of the Earls of Gainsborough though only in remainder to the Barony of Barham (UK 1803) and the 1781 (GB) Baronetcy being descended from the 7th son of the 2nd Bt and his wife in her own right Baroness Barham (2nd in line), and (m 1963 Helen Elizabeth Anne HUTCHISON (d 1992).  He m 2007 Carol Lynn RANSOM and had issue a son Henry Methuen Ransom b 2010.

EXTRACTS:

William Noel, medieval manuscript expert who led the deciphering of lost works by Archimedes – obituary

They revealed that the ancient Greek had anticipated the modern field of combinatorics and the 17th-century idea that infinity is a number

William Noel, who has died aged 58 from injuries sustained during a traffic accident, was an eminent scholar of medieval manuscripts best known for directing a project in which the latest technology was used to decipher lost works of Archimedes of Syracuse, the Greek mathematician and inventor who lived in the third century BC.

British-born and educated, Noel spent most of his career in the United States where he served as Curator of Manuscripts and Rare Books at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Founding Director of the Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies, and subsequently Associate University Librarian for Special Collections at Princeton University……

The second of three children of Henry Noel, a businessman, and Helen, née Hutchison, daughter of the Scottish portrait and landscape painter Sir William Oliphant Hutchison, William Gerard Noel was born on August 1 1965 and brought up at Frinton-on-Sea, where he acquired a lifelong love of sailing…..

Tall, slim and bespectacled, Noel wore his learning lightly and was quick to see the humour in situations. He was intensely loyal to his many friends, his family and a diverse community of colleagues, including from his Cambridge days, always making time for them, and staying in touch and trying to visit on frequent trips back to the UK.

In 2019 he gave the Sandars Lectures in Bibliography at Cambridge University Library on the topic of “The Medieval Manuscript and Its Digital Image”.

It was on a visit to Edinburgh that Noel was struck by a van on April 10. He was taken to the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary where he died 19 days later.

He is survived by his wife Lynn Ransom, also an expert on medieval manuscripts, and by their son Henry.

William Noel, born August 1 1965, died April 29 2024