Philip Algernon Herbert Noyes
Philip Algernon Herbert Noyes (1843-1875)
1876 Obituary [1]
MR. PHILIP ALGERNON HERBERT NOYES, seventh and youngest son of Mr. Thomas Herbert Noyes, of East Mascalls, Lindfield, Sussex, was born at St. Germain-en-Laye, France, on the 21st of August, 1843.
His education, begun at a school in Brighton, was continued at King’s College, London, which he entered in 1860, with the intention of studying for the Indian Civil Service. Eventually however he decided to become a civil engineer, and in June 1863 he was articled to a mechanical engineer at Birmingham; in January 1865 he became a pupil of Mr. Hemans, M. Inst. C.E., with whom he remained till January 1868, being employed during part of that time in the construction of railways in the north-west of Ireland. He afterwards continued to work for a short time in the same office, and then joined a mechanical engineering firm which carried on business at Northfleet under the style of Alibon and Noyes. Subsequently, in August 1871, he was appointed by the Ceylon Government an assistant engineer on the railways in that island.
He worked at first under Mr. John Rhames Home, on whose removal to another post, in March 1875, Mr. Noyes was requested to take up the duties of engineer in charge. In the summer of 1875 he was employed at Colombo, where his work led him for the most part through the cholera-stricken districts of that town, and the constant exposure to sun and wet in such a trying season and climate caused his health to fail, and the first symptoms of the fatal disease (progressive locomotor-ataxy) to which he afterwards succumbed, became apparent. He was recommended by his medical adviser to return to England at once, but was unwilling to give up his duties until convinced that all hope of being able to resume them was at an end. He therefore postponed his departure till October, when he embarked in the teamship “Sirius,” which reached Gravesend on the 5th of November. He grew steadily worse during the voyage, died in London on the 15th of November, 1875, and was buried at Great Gaddesden, in the county of Herts.